Manchester United winger Antony has admitted he thought Erik ten Hag’s decision to turn him into a left-back in Sunday’s 4-3 win over Liverpool was “a bit strange”.
Having lost his place in United’s usual starting lineup, Antony started the FA Cup quarter-final on the bench and was introduced with 20 minutes to go, but the Brazil international made a season-altering contribution with a late goal to send the game to extra-time.
United fell behind once again to Harvey Elliott’s 105th-minute strike, after which Ten Hag went all-out attack. Harry Maguire was moved into attack and, after further substitutions, was one of just two natural defenders on the pitch. Diogo Dalot stayed at right-back, an injured Bruno Fernandes went central and Ten Hag asked Antony to join them at left-back.
Footage emerged on social media appearing to show Antony’s perplexed reaction to the instruction, with the Brazil winger clearly frustrated by something, but the 24-year-old later insisted he was happy to take the challenge.
“Sacrifice, sacrifice,” he told TNT Sports. “When the coach said that, we found it a bit strange, but sacrificing for the group, sacrificing for the team, that’s fine with me.”
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Ten Hag was full of praise for the under-fire Antony after the game, insisting the 24-year-old is starting to look like the superstar he worked with at Ajax.
“It’s very important for him,” Ten Hag told beIN SPORTS. “He struggled so much. First part, he was not himself, he’s responsible for that.
“And then he lost confidence, and now he has to fight back. We see through the last two weeks, he’s returning. I see in training, I see the Antony I used to work with at Ajax, and also used to work with in the first weeks here.
“He has to fight back, and I’m sure he will do, because you’ve seen that goal. But not only in the goal. When he’s going to left full-back position, he’s defending very well. In certain systems, he can play from that side.
“He’s not a defending player, don’t get me wrong, because we have seen, he can score goals.”
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