Antony’s creative struggles: Zero league assists the result of Brazilian’s inefficiency

Antony has more assists for Ajax (two) than for Manchester United this season (one).

When Casemiro was sent off against Southampton on Sunday, Antony took a moment to console his team-mate, repeatedly pointing to the midfielder’s chest. “I will win this game for you, I will,” was the message. Unfortunately, Antony could not make good on his sentiment, creating zero chances and having no shots on goal in the 0-0 draw.

Many wide players would struggle to have an impact in a team of 10 men, but Antony’s United career has seen him create relatively little in the Premier League thus far. 

Erik ten Hag made great efforts to secure Antony’s services from Ajax before the summer window ended. United overpaid for the winger (Ajax chief executive Edwin van Sar suggested so himself in an interview with The Athletic), but here was a player with a rare skill set, who already knew the style of football the new man in charge at Old Trafford was looking to bring to the club. 

While there were questions over whether Antony had the physicality to make the jump from the Eredivisie to the Premier League, his technical skills weren’t in doubt. Things looked promising when the Brazilian scored three goals in his first three Premier League games and it was hoped he would continue to be an important attacker in Ten Hag’s team.

Yet it has been hard to properly quantify Antony’s importance. In theory, he is an aggressive, ball-carrying inverted winger tasked with creating and scoring goals. United look a poorer side when he is unavailable through injury but numerical data suggests he is one of the least creative wingers in the league.

If you look at expected assists per 90 minutes (otherwise known as xA — assessing the number of passes that should/could lead to goalscoring opportunities), the Brazilian is averaging somewhere between 0.05 and 0.06 per game, several steps behind the division’s most creative wide players (who have played at least 900 minutes).

Antony’s low xA score is related to United’s unorthodox attack: Wout Weghorst is a hard-working rather than prolific striker and Marcus Rashford prefers to run in behind defences rather than have crosses whipped into the box for him. 

Even so, the Brazil international has a surprisingly low ranking in this metric compared to his team-mates. 

Why is Antony struggling so much to create for others? The root of the issue comes from his one-footedness. It is an open secret that he prefers cutting inside onto his left foot for either a cross or shot from the right half-space. Opposition teams are quick to stop it, often sending an additional defender to block the areas Antony wishes to cut inside and access. 

Antony’s reluctance to use his right foot also means the winger rarely hits full stride when dribbling as he is constantly readjusting himself to keep the ball on his stronger side. This can slow down United’s best counter-attacking moves, where another winger might simply knock the ball forward several yards and chase after it.

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Unlike Arjen Robben* – another left-footed winger fond of cutting inside – Antony lacks the explosive pace to blow past a defender. Despite his fondness for a hesitated stepover, he also lacks the repertoire of skill moves to deceive a defender when dribbling before attempting to cut inside. 

(*Bayern Munich fans will tell you Robben would practice several feints and tricks for cutting inside and shooting in warm-up drills. While it looked like he had one trick, he had myriad methods for pulling it off.)

What was a point of concern in mid-October is growing into a minor problem in mid-March. A look at Antony’s chance-creation map in the Premier League shows a winger working in a narrow space and finding little joy.

What few chances he does create come from pulled-back passes or square balls from the half-spaces, and he rarely makes passes from outside the width of the penalty area. Only one of his created chances has been played into a space beyond the penalty spot. 

Compare that to his open-play chances in his final Champions League campaign with Ajax. Antony’s passes occur further up the field, with more balls directed towards the penalty spot. 

Antony’s creative issues this season are compounded by the fact he often seeks to shoot at goal in the rare moments he does find space.

His shot map from the Premier League contains a cluster of low-probability and low-quality shots from the same right half-space the Brazilian creates the lion’s share of his chances.

Add this all up and Antony is:  

• Someone who has a favourite area of the field from which he attacks
• Someone who has a favourite way of getting to that area
• His preferred method for getting into that area can be stopped in a straightforward manner
• And on top of that, he can be inefficient even when he arrives in his preferred hotspot

So how does Antony correct these issues? A clue can be found in the winger’s most recent appearances in the Europa League.

After scoring against both Barcelona and Real Betis at home, The Athletic asked Ten Hag if the alternate pace of European competition suited the 23-year-old. It was a theory quickly rebuffed by the United manager but provided further background on what he wants from Antony.

“I don’t think he can only do it in the Europa League because he scored in his first three games in the Premier League,” said Ten Hag. 

“In the first half (against Betis), he could do better. To make more actions, be more brave, go in behind more and take players on, but especially more movement using his speed and I think the second-half performance was much better. He scored a great goal and an important goal.”

Ten Hag is quick to compliment an attacking player for their willingness to run in behind opposition defences.

Antony is not the paciest player in United’s squad (he has good acceleration but not the greatest top speed) but he has pre-existing knowledge of where a wide player should run and arrive into the final third in a Ten Hag team.

Antony has one assist to his name this season – against Reading in the FA Cup – along with seven goals in all competitions (Photo: Michael Regan/Getty Images)

This is one reason United look poorer without Antony in the starting XI — while he is not an explosive dribbler like Rashford or a cunning mover in tight spaces like Jadon Sancho, his appreciation for where he should orientate himself has value.

The Brazilian’s United career will improve markedly once he trusts his right foot, but if he can marry it with his ability to run in behind (with the requite intensity), then he has good potential.

That Ten Hag has now come to use Facundo Pellistri as a second-half substitute for Antony is an interesting point of contrast. The United manager has stressed the Uruguayan’s more typical playing style is helped by following Antony’s repeated attempts to invert.

United fans would ideally wish to combine these two players’ skill sets and create one winger capable of getting chalk on his boots for crosses and cutting inside to shoot from the half-space but, at the moment, Antony has the following checklist of improvement:

1. Antony will need to attack other areas of the field better
2. He will need to develop different ways of attacking his favourite area in the right half-space
3. He will need to be more efficient when arriving into his favourite areas in the attacking third rather than produce low-quality shots and passing efforts 

When Antony succeeded Hakim Ziyech in Ten Hag’s Ajax team, he thrived as an inverted winger in a group already capable of dominating possession and winning the ball high up the field. 

Like Ziyech at Chelsea, Antony has encountered difficulty going from the pace of the Dutch league to the pace and tactical challenges found when facing Premier League opponents. As United continue their progression under Ten Hag and learn to master more of his tactical demands (and upgrade at centre-forward), they will hope Antony will find his creative nous.

(Top photo: Naomi Baker/Getty Images)