The Manchester United winger has come under fire since Sunday night’s 7-0 hammering at the hands of Liverpool and has been accused of ignoring his manager’s instructions
Antony has been accused of ignoring Erik ten Hag’s instructions during Manchester United’s 7-0 defeat by Liverpool – something he has already been pulled up on this season.
Former England boss Glen Hoddle has identified Antony as one of the worst United performers on the day and called into question his tactical nous.
“You’ve got to stay at least with the ball when you’re on the opposite side, particularly against these two full-backs,” Hoddle told Premier League productions. “His reaction should be to get level with the ball and also goal-side of Robertson.
“If the manager has told him to sit out, it’s not cheating, is it? If the manager has said sit out well then it’s not worked for them.
“But if the manager is saying, ‘No, you’ve got to track back’, which he says after in his post-match interview that they didn’t work hard enough, then maybe he was asked to track back. He was out of position all day long.”
In what is concerning news from Ten Hag’s perspective, this is not the first time Antony has been accused of ignoring the instructions of his manager.
Five months ago, in the aftermath of the 6-3 drubbing at the hands of local rivals Manchester City at the Etihad, Antony was called into question despite bagging a delightful goal that served as little more than a consolation.
A Sun report explained that Ten Hag explicitly told his Brazilian winger to track back and help out Diogo Dalot in the build-up to the fixture. Yet when the game started, Dalot was seen bickering with Antony and demanding he helps defensively.
It did not evade the attention of United legend Paul Scholes at the time, given he took to Instagram to post a picture of Ryan Giggs and David Beckham alongside the caption: “Anyone remember when wingers used to help their full-backs?”
Antony desperately needs to turn things around after his summer switch from Ajax and following Ten Hag’s orders seems like the most obvious place to start.
‘It was like playing with 10 men’ – Richards accuses Man Utd star of ‘walking’ during Liverpool thrashing
The Red Devils were brought back down to earth with a bang at Anfield just a week after winning the Carabao Cup final against Newcastle.
Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah all scored two each and Roberto Firmino added another as Jurgen Klopp’s side were rampant in the second half against Man Utd.
Antony, who has often been criticised this season for not tracking back, made the starting line-up against Liverpool with Erik ten Hag leaving him on the pitch for the whole match.
And former Man City defender Richards thinks it was “like playing with 10 men” for the Brazil international’s Man Utd team-mates.
“There was no communication between (Diogo) Dalot and Antony, it was like playing with 10 men because Antony wasn’t doing his work down that side,” Richards said on Match of the Day 2.
“We all know how good (Andy) Robertson and Trent (Alexander-Arnold) are in full-back positions so you would think Antony would try and get closer to Robertson.”
Antony offered very little protection for Man Utd team-mate Dalot for most of the match and as the game wore on Andy Robertson had more and more space to run into.
Richards added: “He didn’t track (Robertson) to begin with – he was eight metres away – and that was just a little taster of what was to happen.
“Antony needed to come back into that position but he just doesn’t do it.
“I was confused as to whether he was just being lazy for his team or his manager was just telling him to stay up there and be a threat on the counter-attack. Either way, it just kept happening and happening.
“As soon as they lose the ball, he just walks. We are talking about one of the biggest games for Manchester United and when they win the ball back there isn’t an option for him to run in behind because he is four yards offside.”
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Man Utd only had a slim chance of a title challenge this season but the 14 points gap to Premier League leaders Arsenal, despite having a game in hand, now seems insurmountable.
Following largely positive performances this season, Man Utd boss Ten Hag isn’t getting carried away by the defeat, he said: “If it was more often then it’s a pattern, but we had so many good results in the last weeks, months, so many good performances.
“This was a really bad performance, and I talk about the second half, because first half I think this team, our team, played really well. Played really decent.”
