If you are going to rate every game on what we paid for him you’re going to be very disappointed. We overpaid everyone can see that . He’s only 22 , there’s talent in him and I can’t wait to see him develop.
21
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 44
- Goals
- 8
- Assists
- 3
- Yellow cards
- 8
-
In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
- Status
Not his best game to be honest. Always interesting with his positionning, but his crosses were awful. He really need to be more clinical with his passes and crosses
Would be great if we could leave the price we paid out of performance threads. What difference does it make? If we got him for free would it have been a great performance? If he was MOTM and we paid £500m would it have been a bad performance? We can't change what we paid, get past it and judge his performances based on what he did on the pitch.
Is he even a fullback?
It was funny just watching him burn past Burn... just wish he'd done a bit more with it though.
He played most of his matches for Brighton at LB, has played a few for Newcastle also so yes.
Whether he prefers CB or not, i'm not sure. People trying to downplay it are a bit strange, he'd have done the same to Trippier too.
Yea that video shows just how poorly he played. He is so damn 1 footed, he can't do anything with his right foot.
Not sure how you can assume that given he's so far struggled a bit one on one with every fullback he's come up against.
I always thought Burn played as a CB in a three for Brighton. He's built and moves like a CB anyway.
I'm not discrediting Antony. It's just no coincidence that when he has eventually done a fullback a couple of times it's 6ft 6, slow as you like, Dan Burn.
Something would be badly wrong if he didn't do him for a pace a couple of times at least.
Well said
Antony's inability/unwillingness to use his right foot is really glaring. Four or five times he gets into a very dangerous crossing position by beating his man to the outside and each time he either tries an extremely difficult outside of the left foot cross that is weak/misplaced or he ends up just slowing down so he can put the ball back on his left foot from a standing position, allowing the defender to get back in front of him.
Ten Hag should have him come early to practice and just over and over practice passing/crossing the ball with his right foot while on the run.
Or maybe now it's the start of him being fully fit, confident and adjusting to the league? He's always had the ability/speed in him, but his confidence hasn't allowed him to try it yet.
You could see almost like a light turned on in his head, once he got passed him the first time he went at him again and again.
I see no reason why he can't do that against other fullbacks? Dan Burn isn't slow from what I've seen.
Me neither but we do need to see him do it.
I hope his confidence is building cos I'm sure that's the biggest part of it.. He did his little spinning trick thing so the confidence and swagger is coming it seems.
That's what I mean, the light sort of switched on that 'ok I can do this'. He was being way more direct than previous games.
I do think he feels like a small fish in a big pond right now, his infatuation with Ronaldo etc. Every game he's showing more and more, maybe it'll take a year but once he gets over this he will feel more settled.
I'm sorry to tell you this but the Price / Quality / Results relation must ALWAYS be considered.
Would you be OK with a huge wages salaryman that gets late, is lazy, does crappy work, is prone to anger, is unprofessional, etc? I don't think so.
Part of judging a player's performances on the pitch is directly linked to how much he earns and costs, because it's an investment.
Have you seen at least one take on burn? I don't know if you understand what I'm talking about, which is having a one vs one postion where he actually try to dribble past him, not cutting to the inside or passing the ball back. In a position near to the area, where you actually break the defense.
Have you seen him doing something like this? All he does when he gets near to the box is stop and play the ball backwards. Your 100M winger has to have the capacity to try doing it. And as I told you before, I want him to try, not to succeed every single time. I hope it's something due to some lack of confidence because he's new to the league or something. Some people forget this is United, and are ok with a winger that wins a couple duels in midfield but can't really cause any troble other than cutting to the inside and shooting.
Well, he didn't cross properly and tried to look for Ronaldo all the time despite having better choices at times. And again, his man was a 2mts CB playing LB. That's the level you will use to measure his performances? I expect more, and against proper LBs.
Well watch the video, he had Dalot a couple times alone and didn't use him, decided to make some weird crosses instead. And he needs to try taking defenders on, at least when he's one on one. It's in the DNA of a winger.
He is at the moment definitely not 100m euro player, or worth it, that is only the price we paid for him and the hope we have that he one day will become. Even if Ronaldo was a couple of years younger we he joined, it took him like 3-4 years to become the star player he turned out to be and was at his prime between 28-33. So there is time and hope, even though i am 100% he will not be the next Ronaldo or Messi, question is if anyone will be ever. Haaland needs to score 46 goals every season for 16 seasons to reach Ronaldos numbers - 16. At he is the closest we have to compare to them when it comes to goals.
What Ronaldo and Messi did for around 8-9 years between 2009-2018 is something the world of football has never seen. They scored like 50-60 goals every season and Messi even had a year with over 100 goals. INSANE!
What Ronaldo and Messi did for around 8-9 years between 2009-2018 is something the world of football has never seen. They scored like 50-60 goals every season and Messi even had a year with over 100 goals. INSANE!
Let’s see how he develops but so far concerns about his lack of take-ons is very valid, you want your wingers to lift the fans off their seat when on the ball by being electric but you don’t get that feeling currently with him.
He hugs the touchline a bit too much at the minute. Need to see a bit more variety in movement. Has that ability in him to beat a man but tends to do it more further away from the box for some reason.
Needs a bit more from Dalot and others too with runs so that left foot has more space.
Needs a bit more from Dalot and others too with runs so that left foot has more space.
I disagree. A performance is a performance. All players should be held to the same standard.
What comes across in your post is that someone who earns less money is allowed to not try as hard or can be unprofessional. That should not be the case. Every player needs to be professional and always give their all.
Antony, nor any other player, had any control over how much the club paid for them. Should he have turned around and said he no longer wanted to sign for us when the fee went that high?
Whether we got him for €100m or €10m I’d expect the same level of effort and professionalism on the field.
If you watched a player and didn’t know how much he cost the club or his salary, would you not be able to judge his performance? If you said it was great, then found out he cost €200m would you change your mind?
You're right, Antony isn't responsible for his pricetag. But you can't prevent fans from watching other teams and wonder "couldn't we find better for that amount of money?" Is he so much better than a player like Moussa Diaby for exemple that would have been 30M-40M cheaper?
I'm not trying to prevent people from wondering. I know that its normal, to be honest, thoughts like that always go through my head for certain players too. He is our player now though and we've paid what we've paid. Its just the price mentions all the time get a bit tiresome. Anyways, we'll leave it at that and let the thread return to performance discussion!
He’s not asked to best a man. Ten Hag has said he wants his wide men to work overloads and not focus on dribbling.
Remember when the caf complained about Ole winning games with "individual skill"?
People want attacking patterns until they get attacking patterns.
What for though ? United doesn't have a good striker so is it for Bruno only ? I'd undersand if he asked one wide man to play like that but both of them makes no sense.
Also, no coach would ask a player that can consistantly beat his man not to, they ask that when they know it would result in far too many turnoverq. Guardiola is the master of overload football, and yet without a striker, he often uses wingers with a far more central role ans required dribbling, like Sane, Mahrez or Jesus.
Should we do like Fergie did with Rooney and Ronaldo, playing them all the time even when they have bad form like he did in 2004 and 2005? From what I remember anyway they rarely were subbed. Antony is that kind of player that also probably sooner or later will show world class.
Antony's style of play is similar to Alexis Sanchez. The strong point about Antony is at least he is faster and he can shoot from longer distance unlike Alexis whose legs was already done when he came here.
How about both? Wanting a man to have a go at his man in the final third doesn’t mean not want attacking patterns for feck sake.
If he’s one on one with his man and no support you just wanting him to stop and wait for dalot not to overlap and pass backwards every time?
And Rashford can't do anything with his left. One of the main reasons we bought Antony is he's left footed. Now all of a sudden people have an issue when he uses his left foot.
For someone who is "not asked to beat a man" the surely tries a lot of dribbling past the said man, just unsuccessfully more often than not.
Thought he was a solid 7/10 today and was his best game for the club. Took on players more than he has in his previous games but his final ball is still not there, this isn't helped by the fact he is either trying to constantly cut onto his left foot or trying an outside foot pass to Ronaldo. Needs to massively improve on his his right foot and become less predictable!
I think a lot are disappointed but overall, I'm liking what I see so far and I believe he has several gears to go up still!
I think a lot are disappointed but overall, I'm liking what I see so far and I believe he has several gears to go up still!
I liked his performance, unlucky not to score, he's a menace to play against but does need to mix it up a bit more.
Really like him, he must be a manager’s dream to work with.
His ball-carrying ability was on full display tonight.
He’s going to be some player for us.
He is improving as I expected. Did a couple great moves today.
He will be a key player next season after he's settled.
He will be a key player next season after he's settled.
He rarely loses the ball. Very, very rarely.
Thos who wanted to see him dribble more must be happy I suppose ? He got Spurs so shook they had to double him everytime
Had a very good game. He really was up for it tonight. That bit of skill on Perisic in the first half was sublime
I think Antony knows his weaknesses and so does ETH, he's 22 so his right foot will improve over the next 2 years tremendously. But he works well within the system and silky on the ball he will pull players away for other teams to exploit frequently.
I also think with ETH ball its to exploit quick switches working it back and building, disrupting the shape of a team, winning high presses and relying on runners.
I genuinely don't see Antony being like a prime Hazard or whoever taking on players, I do see him being frightening from crosses, taking on players when he needs and driving at the heart of the team playing clever reverse passes.
I still think give him 12 months and people will be really impressed, his growth from 18 has been insane.
- Status