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Manchester United’s Antony surprisingly leads the Premier League within the quantity of instances he has gained again possession within the closing third this yr.
The Brazilian has endured a season from hell and appears to have misplaced his place within the beginning lineup to fan favorite Amad Diallo.
Such has been the type of the previous Ajax man that he’s unlikely to start out the FA Cup closing on Saturday in opposition to Manchester Metropolis.
He has performed 38 video games this season, scoring thrice whereas offering two assists. Poor numbers for a £86 million signing, though the huge value will not be his fault.
Nonetheless a current Premier League statistic has highlighted the one factor the winger is sweet at.
🚨Antony gained possession within the closing third per 90 greater than ANYONE else within the Premier League this season. pic.twitter.com/qoyTOKp2Gt
— Frank🧠🇳🇱 (fan) (@TenHagEra) Could 20, 2024
Antony leads the league when it comes to most possessions gained again within the closing third per 90 minutes of motion.
He wins possession again on common 1.7 instances a match within the higher areas of the pitch and that is considerably greater than Crystal Palace’s Eberechi Eze and Everton’s Beto who win the ball 1.4 instances a recreation, in joint second place.
Erik ten Hag spoke firstly of the season that he wished to remodel the staff into the finest transition staff on the planet. He desires his staff to press excessive and aggressively up the pitch, and punish opposition errors in a flash.
United definitely have the tempo upfront to do that with Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund and Marcus Rashford.
Nonetheless, what has been lacking this season is a unified urgent construction from again to entrance with Ten Hag’s males too simple to mess around. They’ve satirically ended up defending extra transitions than they’ve really managed to create.
No winger must be deemed a hit resulting from how a lot they press, particularly an £86 million signing. It’s not solely a numbers recreation relating to analysing Antony.
He recurrently fails to get entangled in video games and when he does, he typically loses the ball operating into blind alleys or taking little or no care together with his passing, a lot to the frustration of United followers across the globe.
This dedication to finishing up his coach’s directions and do the soiled work most likely explains why Ten Hag was so keen to maintain him within the lineup earlier within the season, even when it was apparent to most that he wasn’t ok so begin recurrently at a membership like Manchester United.
His poor kind has meant that there have been rumours that the membership are open to offloading him in the summertime and may Erik ten Hag additionally go away, the probabilities of the Brazilian departing will even go up considerably.
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