Manchester United's new signing Antony was accused of overlooking his defensive duties by boss Erik ten Hag in Sunday's Manchester derby, according to reports.
The £86m forward was said to have ignored instructions at the Etihad, specifically in terms of contributing to the team without the ball. The Brazilian, who became Manchester United's second most expensive player in history in the summer, has worked with Ten Hag previously at Ajax, yet despite this existing relationship, he ignored pre-match orders to help right-back Diogo Dalot defensively.
Although Antony grabbed himself a goal with a stunning strike when United already trailed 4-0, his teammate Dalot endured an incredibly tough afternoon coming up against the likes of Jack Grealish and Bernardo Silva.
An early foul saw Dalot booked, which meant he was treading a tightrope, and he along with the rest of the defence struggled to keep the City attack at bay as they scored four times before the interval.
Dalot’s struggles, and indeed Antony’s lack of support throughout, can be seen when watching the game back. In the first example below, Antony looks to be cutting out a passing option to Joao Cancelo, yet neither he nor Scott McTominay do enough to cut the passing lane out to Grealish.
Sometimes doing so isn’t easy, yet at this moment you’d want and expect to see Antony quickly dropping in to recover and help Dalot avoid being in a one-against-one with the dangerous City attacker.
He doesn’t though, and Grealish ends up dribbling into a space that Antony should have been occupying, the move leads to a dangerous free-kick on the edge of the United penalty area.
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We see another example of why Dalot struggled so much in the next shot. Grealish has picked the ball up from out wide and is running at the United right-back with Antony behind the play, merely jogging back to support.
While this is happening, Ilkay Gundogan is behind Dalot and about to make a run off of him. This is effectively a two against one and City again manage to create a dangerous attacking situation when Grealish feeds Gundogan who cuts the ball back across goal.
Sky Sports commentary within the game is heard at this stage saying “Dalot needs more support”, and Dalot was also seen lamenting the Brazilian for not tracking back and offering a helping hand.
Antony’s poor defensive showing can also be captured within the underlying numbers from the game. He finished the fixture at the Etihad having attempted 18 pressures, which was actually the most by any United player, however, there was sense watching them back that he was rarely applying pressure with any intent.
That’s a point captured by the fact just two (11 per cent) of those pressures were deemed successful in terms of United going on to win the ball back immediately after.
City of course went on to hit United for six in the game, and although Antony got himself on the scoresheet, it’s fair to say that great individual strike was overshadowed by a terrible team display and his contribution to that poor showing.
He’ll have to learn quickly that in the Premier League, especially at a club like United, he has a job to do defensively as well as offensively if he wants to be a success.
