Manchester United fans were wowed by Antony's tricks and skills on his debut but Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher were far less impressed. Not that it bothers the Brazilian any.
After a summer of chasing, United finally managed to break Ajax's resolve towards the end of the transfer window and sign top attacking target Antony for an initial £85million. The thrilling winger got straight to work in justifying his massive fee as he bagged the opener in the 3-1 victory over Arsenal last weekend, coolly dispatching Marcus Rashford's pass into the far bottom corner.
Despite the promising start, however, Antony came in for some criticism due to his showboating antics as well. Earlier in the game, the 22-year-old received the ball on the right side of the pitch and faced up his opponent Aleks Zinchenko. Anthony's feet then became a whirlwind around the ball as he aimed to trick the defender but ultimately he didn't attempt to go past him, instead passing back away from the goal to a teammate.
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The skill earned cheers from the Old Trafford faithful but United great Neville and his pundit colleague Carragher were not left impressed in the slightest. Speaking on Sky Sports, Neville said that the moves were ‘pointless’ and that Antony would get 'whacked' because of them.
Neville began: "To be honest with you, when you see a player doing that your automatic reaction as a defender..." before being interrupted by Carragher who echoed his thoughts by saying: "Put him in the stand."
"Yeah, you are going to get whacked," Neville continued. "But from a United point of view, we have been asking for personality, confidence and character. So we can't knock it because we have got someone out there who is having himself, massively."
Antony certainly has confidence in abundance as he has made it abundantly clear that he won't be changing his flamboyance on the pitch for anyone. “I’ve always done this,” he told United's in-house media. “Not just here but for all the teams I’ve played for.
“I’ve been doing it ever since I was a child. I’ve always done it – it’s one of my characteristics. I am adapting and getting used to things here already. Entertaining is something I’ve always liked and I’ll continue doing it.”
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