Erik ten Hag hailed Antony for keeping Manchester United on course for a top-four finish... but wants him to be more consistent.
Antony scored United's opener - his first Premier League goal since October - and set up the second for Diogo Dalot as Ten Hag's side moved back up into third place with a 2-0 win against Steve Cooper's struggling Nottingham Forest on Sunday afternoon.
United are now six points clear of fifth-placed Tottenham with a game in hand, with Ten Hag singling out £85million Brazilian winger Antony for special praise. "The goal he scored, he was in the right spot, in the right moment to get the rebound," said Ten Hag.
"The second goal was a great team goal, how we built that up, the way Antony did it to bring the pass in the right moment and the movement from Diogo was fantastic, it was good to see."
Antony has been accused of failing to justify his huge transfer fee in his debut season for United, with Ten Hag admitting the 23-year-old is capable of more. "I defended him," said Ten Hag. "He knows, I know as well, that when you're a striker, you need an end product.
"But already he had quite a lot of end product, he scored in all competitions now. Eight goals in his first year United is not bad and there are still games to go.
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"But he has to do it. I can't say in every game, but in many games, if you want to be a top-class player and especially in all the competitions. He has to step up. Today was an example where, with both goals, he made the right decision."
Cooper claimed United skipper Harry Maguire should have been shown a second yellow card for handball in the first-half. The Forest boss, whose side remain in the bottom three, said: "I'm not going to say it's the absolute reason we lost the game.
"But I think it's a definite penalty from Maguire and possibly a second yellow card, which could have been a game-changer. I think it's a really, really, really bad error.
"One from the referee on the pitch, but benefit of the doubt from that angle and bodies around the ball, but for VAR not to give it. They apologised last week and they are going to have to apologise again tomorrow, which means absolutely nothing."
United will travel to Spain shortly for the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final with Sevilla, with the score level at 2-2. Forest, meanwhile, have seven huge Premier League games remaining, starting with their trip to Anfield to face Liverpool this Saturday.
The bad news for Forest fans is they must also play Arsenal and Chelsea before the end of the season, as well as Europe-chasing Brighton and Brentford.
