Antony and Weghorst score in Man Utd win but both still cop it in the Mailbox…

Editor F365
Antony celebrates his goal

Man Utd fans in the Mailbox trust Antony considerably less than Erik ten Hag seems to. His goal against Real Betis, and Wout Weghorst’s first for the club, earns neither a reprieve.

Get your views in to theeditor@football365.com

One-trick pony
I watched the first half of Manchester United’s match against Betis and two players were horrible. De Gea and Antony.

For Antony, it is a match day occurrence and it’s surprising most people tend to defend him and then insult the likes of Bruno and Dalot who actually do their jobs.

From previous Erik Ten Hag sides, it is the job of the Right Winger to hold the width so he can be isolated with a fullback when there is a ball switch, he is also expected to be a very good crosser of the ball. He is expected to be able to take players on in 1v1 situations and also help the fullbacks. He is expected to have an understanding with the fullback when they overlap and underlap.

Antony does none of these, he slows the attack, can’t cross, can’t dribble and only scores a few times. Some say he defends but he also gets dispossessed most of the time. United’s attack usually end whenever he or Weghoust get the ball.

For context, he has an expected Assist rate of about 0.09 per 90 in the EPL and is ranked in the 40th percentile among PL players. He has swung in 23 crosses and completed 1, that is a “4.35%” completion rate. Antony has also tried 27 dribbles and completed Seven, he is in the 29th percentile for completed dribbles and that is bad because most wingers in the Epl have got more.

The fact that Rashford is having 4 times his goal contributions this season is a cause for concern. When I watched him at Ajax I was happy cos I thought he will come with that Brazilian flair and silky dribbles but he has been disappointing so far. He has to improve or Greenwood will stroll back in if he is cleared.
Joey Praise (Nigeria – Stats from Footystats)

 

…I get the criticism of Antony. I really do. If he was a player of a different team, hell I would even join in. But all credit to him to take it on his chin, work hard and keep doing what he does best – cut to the left and shoot.
Feel good stuff after Wout goal, you could see what it means to him! I had tears.
Shivam, MUFC (Wout Wout Wout) Singapore

Read more: Fernandes, Rashford and Man Utd provide the necessary Europa response after Sunday’s Anfield unpleasantness

Is it safe to come out yet?
Have finally come out of hiding expecting the mailbox to have moved on from Sundays freak result. Note to self, stay away until the next utd game has been played, there’ll probably be a fresh twist to the soap opera.

Just wanted to point out some BS. Firstly someone said Utd were never that good. Sorry mate, but being 3rd in the table suggests there’s only 2 sides doing better than you however you spin your biased match summaries.

And all this over reaction on the Liverpool game for whatever score it was, I forget, but it was a drubbing. Utd got soundly beaten the first 2 games of the season, their recovery from then has been epic and E10H rightly gets the credit. But anyone who expected us not to have a few hiccups along the way is smoking something special. Personally, I’m pleasantly surprised we haven’t had more setbacks but in reality with the amount of games we have left to play it will be no surprise if we have a few more hiccups left. Top 4 is by no means in the bag with so many games to play and with Spurs and Newcastle not far behind.

We are still one of the sides significantly out performing expectations at the start of the season. One result does not change that. I’d rather be on the trajectory we are on than that of Liverpool or Chelsea. Spurs are 4th, their fans want to sack their manager and yet they’re comfortable ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool who at the start of the season were the 2 most likely to challenge city for the title.

Liverpool are still 7 points (Yes, SEVEN) behind United so celebrate your win, it might be the last thing you get to celebrate for a while. Here’s hoping.
Jon, Cape Town (glad for South Africa’s rolling blackouts that made me miss the game on Sunday)

 

…Happily have taken some time to digest the fun of Sunday’s game as a United fan, but reading the mailbox has been a bit of a trainwreck hasn’t it?

Firstly, LFC fans should absolutely be crowing, that is quite literally a historic win. All credit to LFC, after a pretty even first half they were absolutely a different beast in the second, and deservedly thrashed United. Do teams usually score 6 from 7 shots? No, but some days these things happen. As a United fan, I personally would actually take a 7-0 thrashing of LFC over the League Cup for what it’s worth. If that’s the only highlight of the season.

On ETH, what idiocy is this I read? He’s not that good? He’s only beaten x teams, and here’s a random reason for each being easy? Seriously, how sad are you? Last season, this team was dire. Rashford scored FIVE goals. United finished 6th, with 58 points. That’s just 9 more than we have this season already. Since ETH was able to make a few signings, United have basically been on par with the league leaders. That’s just fine for me, and literally every single United fan in the world. United has won the only silverware up for grabs to date, just beaten the Spanish league leaders over a two-legged tie and look on course for Top 4. That’s in his first 6 months as manager, who had to deal with Cristiano’s ego for half of it, and Wout f*cking Weghourst as the only thing the club could afford for the other. ETH is a miracle worker.

On Fernandes, what a difference a week makes. Here’s a list of outfield players in Europe who have played more minutes than him: . And on Sunday, when everything went wrong in a hostile crowd he finally hit breaking point. The man is shattered. No footballer can play at high intensity every 3 days, but that’s what United have had to do. 0 midweek breaks. Only club in Europe with that. And guess what – as literally everyone was pointing out – it makes a difference. Did Newcastle look fresher? Yep. West Ham? Yep. Liverpool? Of course! Personally I hate his whinging and don’t think he’s a captain but please, the man has given more this season than anyone else, can we not forgive him 45 minutes?

Finally, as a few sensible heads have pointed out: Sunday is all about context. If United win this weekend, stay in the top 4 then it’s not a big deal. If they collapse, it’s a big deal. No one knows today.
Ryan, Bermuda

 

Perspective
This is a bit odd.

Man Utd ( having an amazing season, especially after seemingly winning The World Cup a couple Sundays ago ) have won ONE game more than Spurs ( dreadful, lets face it ) in the league this season.

Does this mean that Man Utd are also crap ( their away form against top half clubs indicates that , 6 games , 1 win, 4 losses, 22 goals conceded ) , or are Spurs brilliant ( nope, can’t think of anything other than errrr Harry Kane ? ) too ?
Adam Halliday, confused.com, Sunny Saigon

 

Dire double act
Couldn’t agree more with Matthew, Belfast about how tiresome the whole Neville/Carragher double act has become. When both of them started in the media they at least made some sort of effort to be impartial and balanced, but now they are so unashamedly biased towards their former teams that I prefer to watch without sound any time they’re both covering a game. Also – do we really need 2 co-commentators on games now? Give me one decent co-commentator doing actual unbiased analysis with no ‘banter’ again any day of the week.
David Horgan, AVFC, Dublin

Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher talk about Arsenal
Spurs frustration
How the bloody hell did City lose to ‘this’ Tottingham side?

FFS!!!!

How many face palm emojis could possibly cover it????

(F.F.S…!)

Just trying to help
Levenshulme Blue, Manchester 19

 

Invincibles twice over
Graham Simons is right to highilght Kolo’s achievement, but when he asks “how many can say they are an invincible twice over?” he doesn’t have to look far for an answer! Toure’s occasional partner in central defence that season, Jozo Simunovic, was unbeaten for Dinamo Zagreb in 2045/15 and then for Celtic in 2016/17.
Dara O’Reilly

 

The Arrival of Pi
Wow Cheers Ged Biglin I never thought that I would ever see that in Mailbox. A brilliant statement using Pi in such a subtle manner

“But his hard work creates so much space for other players. I would bet (and not checked) for every big chance he misses he creates 3.14159 big chances for other players.”

I agree totally with your logic and I value such players, however I prefer 3,1415927.
Lloyd (Jozi) (Well done)