Pundit tells ‘crazy’ Man Utd star to be more ‘humble’ and to start ‘deciding games like Rashford’
Former Tottenham midfielder Rafael van der Vaart thinks Antony “hasn’t proven anything” since joining Manchester United for £85million.
Signed for a huge transfer fee last summer, the 22-year-old winger has had a pretty average start to life in the Premier League.
He actually scored in all of his first three Premier League matches, but is without a goal since his third appearance.
Antony is quite an eccentric player with his flicks and spins, yet he doesn’t seem to like taking defenders on. It is quite a bizarre way to play, and many former professionals have picked up on this.
Last month, Darren Bent accused Antony of being all tricks and no substance.
“He’s doing all this stuff but he’s not going past anyone,” the former Tottenham striker said. “It’s not like he’s doing a trick to manipulate the ball to go past someone, he’s just doing it for the sake of it.
“Where’s the substance in between, where’s the end product?”
And more recently, Gabby Agbonlahor had a go at Antony’s “embarrassing” style of play.
He said: “£86m… I think he’s a bluffer. When he gets the ball, he doesn’t take players on [and] he hasn’t got the speed to take players on.
“He’d take a player on, do his step-overs, cut back, do his chops, but he’d always put the ball in the right areas. For me, Antony, one and a half crosses per game isn’t good enough.
“He does this turn too. He gets the ball and bends around like that. What would you do if you were a defender and he did that turn? It’s embarrassing.”
With five goals in 22 appearances across all competitions for United, Van der Vaart thinks the Brazil international has to be doing more.
“Do you know what it is with Antony… He is of course a great talent and a great player, but he shouldn’t believe in himself very much. He’s just a good player, who hasn’t proven anything yet,” Van der Vaart told Ziggo Sports.
“He has played some good Champions League games, he’s come in reasonably well with the Brazil national team a few times, he’s made a big move and hasn’t done much at Manchester United yet.
“He shouldn’t think: ‘I’ve made it and I’m going to show it to the whole world by doing crazy things’.
“No, he has to decide games, like Marcus Rashford is doing now. Then you can do something crazy for once. But he has to be very humble, try really hard and shoot or pass those balls in.”
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