Rio Ferdinand has called out Antony for his “concerning” inability to beat players after Manchester United were defeated by Arsenal.
Eddie Nketiah scored a 90th-minute winner to down Erik ten Hag’s side 3-2 after an enthralling game in north London. Marcus Rashford and Lisandro Martinez scored for the away side, but Nketiah’s brace and Bukayo Saka ’s strike won it for the Gunners.
Antony had little influence on the game and was substituted in the 71st minute, with Ten Hag taking the winger off for the defensively-minded Fred. He completed three of his five attempted dribbles in the past – including one past Ben White – but Ferdinand took aim at the £85.5million summer signing for his lack of ambition on the ball.
“The concerning thing for me with somebody like Antony is that he can’t beat anyone – and for a Brazilian that’s surprising!” he said on his FIVE YouTube show. “He just doesn’t beat anyone and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Was that always the way?’
“I’ve seen clips of him when he was at Ajax and he was somebody who used to beat people. I saw [Thomas] Partey – who I wouldn’t put down as like a roaster, a sprinter – absolutely burst past him, and I’m thinking, ‘Woah, he [Antony] hasn’t got much power in them legs!’ So, yeah, he’s a tricky winger, but tricky wingers – you want them to still be able to beat the defender.
“Even [Oleksandr] Zinchenko, he’s a great player, great footballer, but defensively you get him one-v-one and you’re a wide-man, you should feel, ‘I can get hold of this guy and I can deal with him’.
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“You want a winger to be going past full-backs without any hesitation at all and with Antony, as much quality as he has on the ball and his technique and stuff like that, [he doesn’t beat defenders].”
The Partey moment, which has been celebrated by Arsenal fans on Reddit, happened in the second half when the game was stretched. Antony had the ball on the left wing in space and had the pace to beat Gabriel Magalhaes, but Partey turned on the afterburners to sprint across and easily dispossess the Brazil international.
For Ferdinand, it was a moment indicative of Antony’s struggles on the ball. He added: “When I played with Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia, even Ji-Sung Park would get past the full-back. Not just by going past them but he’d play it and run and get the other side of them.
“I want to see that from Antony. Listen, it's his first season so you’re going to have to give him a bit of time, doesn’t matter how big the price tag is, but I need to see more glimpses of that.”
Antony now has three goals in 11 Premier League games, but is yet to record a single assist for Ten Hag’s side. United will now turn their attention to cup competitions, with the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday before an FA Cup fourth-round clash with Reading on the weekend.
