Former Tottenham star Rafael van der Vaart has joined the criticism of Antony’s display in the Manchester derby – though for very different reasons to his fellow pundits.
Manchester United shipped four first-half goals in a poor defensive performance at the Etihad, with both Erling Haaland and Phil Foden completing their hat-tricks in the second period.
The Red Devils did manage to score three goals of their own – two of which came very late in the day – though in truth the 6-3 scoreline flattered the visitors.
Antony delivered a mixed performance, showing flashes of his ability that convinced Erik ten Hag to spend £85m on him and scoring a stunning long-range effort.
However, he also came under fire from both Arsene Wenger and Paul Scholes who felt he had not done enough defensively to help Diogo Dalot – and left him exposed.
Van der Vaart was also far from impressed with what he saw from Antony, though his frustrations stemmed from what the player did when he had the ball at his feet.
‘Have you seen Antony play today? He scored a world-class goal,’ began the former Netherlands international during a Sunday evening football show on Dutch TV station NOS.
‘But with every pass he received he kept holding the ball underneath his feet while being 4-0 down. That would annoy the hell out of me!’
Wenger, meanwhile, criticised Antony’s lack of defensive work rate – as well as that of Jadon Sancho, who was on the opposite flank – and feels that was a key battle which the Red devils lost by some margin.
Speaking on beIN Sports, he said: ‘From the first minute on Diogo Dalot got a yellow card and Sancho and Antony did not contribute defensively.
‘They were, in the whole half, flooded on the flanks and they were always in trouble. After that, when they had the ball, I felt they were obsessed by respecting too much the game plan.
‘They wanted always to go too quickly forward and lost so many balls and didn’t have enough possession. They didn’t play for possession, they wanted just to get on the counter-attack.’
