Man Utd duo Christian Eriksen and Antony
Rio Ferdinand has blasted Antony after the Manchester United winger put in another disappointing performance on Saturday, while also naming the surprise Fulham ace he’d rather have in the team.
Antony was named in the starting eleven for Man Utd’s trip to Fulham. The Brazilian is failing to impact matches for Man Utd but is consistently given opportunities by Erik ten Hag when he is fit, which is known to be a growing problem in the dressing room.
Ten Hag is clearly determined to get the best out of Antony after he convinced the Red Devils to spend a whopping £86million on him in August 2022.
However, Antony has failed to register a single goal contribution in his 11 appearances so far this season. And he was lucky not to be sent off in the recent 3-0 defeat to Manchester City, as he picked up a yellow card for hacking at Jeremy Doku not long after coming off the bench.
The 23-year-old once again failed to create anything of note for his team at Craven Cottage, and this resulted in Ten Hag replacing him with Facundo Pellistri in the 63rd minute.
Bruno Fernandes went on to rescue Man Utd from yet another frustrating result by scoring in stoppage time. However, Ferdinand was less than impressed with Antony, as he stated Willian would perform far better in Ten Hag’s team.
“You could smell the frustrations, let alone hear it, from the travelling fans,” the pundit said on TNT Sports, formerly known as BT Sport. “He [Antony] has played 11 games this season, zero goals and zero assists. From an attacking player that’s not good enough. That’s the hard facts.
“You look today, you’ve got a 35-year-old on the opposite wing, in Willian. If you didn’t know their ages, and their career paths, you’d rather have Willian on what you’re seeing right now.
Antony must ‘improve dramatically’ at Man Utd
“He has to improve dramatically. When Rashford’s fit and comes back, which will hopefully be the next game, if Garnacho doesn’t start, he’d probably sit there and scratch his head if Antony starts ahead of him. I’d be doing that.
“You have to have that competitive edge within in the squad. But if you’re being kept out of the team by a player, you want to know that that player’s actually producing the goods and getting some goals, assists or impacting the game. At the moment, I think if Antony does come out of the team, I don’t think he could argue.”
Ferdinand is not the only pundit to rip into Antony’s displays recently.
“He would drive me absolutely mad,” former Man Utd striker Andy Cole said on Sky Sports.
“He’s an individual, we all know he’s very left-footed, he’s an individual who never goes to the right-hand side so as a centre-forward, if you’re making a run to the near post you know you’re never going to get it.
“He’s going to check back, you’re not sure when he’s going to put it in the box.
Winger’s Old Trafford spell ‘really tough’
“He doesn’t score enough goals for me, he doesn’t create enough chances for his teammates. So you look at that and say, ‘okay, what are you giving?’. That’s what you’re expecting from him.
“They’ve spent a hell of a lot of money on him, the manager’s backed him and he’s found it really, really tough.”
As Ferdinand points out, Ten Hag’s other winger options such as Pellistri and Garnacho will feel they should be starting if Antony’s form does not pick up.
This is known to be a problem for Jadon Sancho, who viewed Antony as a ‘favourite’ of Ten Hag’s prior to his public falling out with the manager.