Erik ten Hag praised Antony’s display in Thursday’s loss to Chelsea, but urged the winger to consistently replicate that level of performance for Manchester United. The Old Trafford manager also expressed satisfaction with his team’s style of play, despite their distant position from qualifying for the Champions League next season. The 24-year-old Brazilian earned his first assist of the season in the Premier League during the midweek match where United came back from a two-goal deficit to take a 3-2 lead at Stamford Bridge. Unfortunately, despite the effort, Ten Hag’s team couldn’t secure the win as they were defeated 4-3 by Cole Palmer’s late goals. Antony has been inconsistent in his performance since transferring to Old Trafford for £86m from Ajax in 2022. He made his 12th start of the Premier League season on Thursday, with Marcus Rashford as a substitute. Man United fans have expressed their opinions on Greenwood, and Sir Jim Ratcliffe should take note. If Manchester United decided to retain Erik ten Hag as their manager, it could result in spending as much as £100m this summer. Even though they lost, Ten Hag expressed contentment in seeing the Brazilian player perform at the level that convinced Manchester United to sign him as their second most expensive player nearly two years ago, despite being 11 points behind Aston Villa in fourth place. Ten Hag stated, “I am aware of his abilities and I am glad to see him play like he did against Chelsea.” During my time as manager at Ajax, I observed this frequently, but we have not seen it happen at United. Perhaps in the beginning, we saw flashes of it in the first three games when he scored three goals. But following that, by the way, he had a similar situation, such as the time he scored the game-winning goal against Barcelona last season. He has the ability to do it.
