Antony has been challenged to reach the levels of Mohamed Salah after former Manchester United captain Roy Keane hailed his performance against Nottingham Forest.
The Brazilian winger was the star of the show for United on Sunday, scoring one and assisting the other as they picked up a 2-0 win. Antony followed in Anthony Martial’s effort to open the scoring with a rebound before setting up Diogo Dalot with a delicate through ball.
The goal was Antony’s first in the Premier League since October and, remarkably, the assist was his first in the league since making a £85million transfer from Ajax last summer. He has contributed eight goals and two assists in 35 matches across all competitions for United.
Keane has previously criticised Antony for his lack of end product, but felt his performance against Forest showed plenty of potential. “It’s vital to get those types of goals,” Keane told Sky Sports. “We’ve been critical and he’s got to get in there a little bit more and have that hunger and desire.
“As skilful as he is, these are important moments. To get on the end of it and get a tap in, it’s a big moment for him. We saw the brilliance of him for the second goal, but doing the basics like following shots, players have got to do that because these are big moments.”
Antony had 24 goals and 22 assists in 82 games for Ajax, with the vast majority of those goal contributions coming under Erik ten Hag’s management. Indeed, it was Ten Hag who oversaw his arrival in Amsterdam from Sao Paulo in 2020, so he knows just what Antony is capable of.
HAVE YOUR SAY! Is Antony good enough to reach Mohamed Salah's goalscoring levels? Comment below.
Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink has set Antony a tough challenge by comparing him to Liverpool star Salah. The Egyptian plays in the same position as Antony and has an impressive goalscoring record, having reached 32 goals in the 2017/18 campaign when Manchester City won the title and 19 in 2019/20 when Liverpool lifted the trophy.
“He needs to score more goals,” Hasselbaink said. “Obviously today was important that he’s getting the 1-0. Not the 4-0, the 1-0. But he needs to score more goals and he needs to create more goals.
“Liverpool won the league and Salah scored 30 goals, that’s where he needs to get to. He needs to score more goals.”
Gary Neville made a similar point, highlighting Sadio Mane and Raheem Sterling as players Antony should look at. “I just remember the goals that Salah and Mane used to score at Liverpool, or Sterling and other players for Manchester City,” he said.
“They always get in at the far post when the ball is on the opposite side, and Sancho and Antony have to do that better. Antony did so well for the goal, but you see where Sancho is now, he’s got to get into a goalscoring position.”
