Gary Neville has highlighted that Antony looked unhappy on the Manchester United bench before a forgettable cameo against Manchester City.
This was another dismal derby day from a United perspective.
Erik ten Hag’s men started positively but a soft penalty allowed Erling Haaland to fire City ahead.
Haaland headed home number two after the break before Phil Foden tapped in a third against a lifeless United.
United barely laid a glove on City in the second half and none of Ten Hag’s changes seemed to make a difference.
Gary Neville spots Antony body language in Manchester United defeat
Ten Hag switched it at the break and then made two more changes after 73 minutes – but none of those substitutions featured Antony.
The Brazilian winger cut a frustrated figure as Alejandro Garnacho was introduced ahead of him with United 2-0 down.
Pundit and former United full back Gary Neville stated on Sky Sports that Antony didn’t look happy on the bench and was even shaking his head as Ten Hag went with other players ahead of him.
“Antony is still on the bench… he’s got his head in his hands, he doesn’t look happy, he’s shaking his head. He’s fourth-choice at 90-odd million quid,” said Neville.
Antony did come on after 86 minutes; the game was dead by then and yet he still managed to frustrate Neville.
The United winger twice tried to kick City wide man Jeremy Doku, mere minutes after coming onto the pitch.
This seemed petulant and childish, with Antony going out to hurt Doku and reacting angrily to the Belgian pointing an accusing finger his way.
Neville didn’t like this at all and slammed him as ‘embarrassing’ in a very, very brief cameo.
“Doku is right, Doku is absolutely right, Antony just has a kick at him, United have lost their discipline. That’s absolutely ridiculous, I’d just send him off. It’s absolutely ridiculous from Antony, it’s embarrassing,” said Neville.
My view: Antony looking like another expensive mistake right now
Ten Hag showed enormous faith in Antony by splashing around £82million to reunite after their time together at Ajax.
It all started so well with three goals in Antony’s first three Premier League starts for United, but we just haven’t seen enough quality since.
Antony doesn’t really look dangerous in terms of scoring goals, isn’t particularly creative on the ball, hasn’t been going past defenders and looks poor value for money now.
There is plenty of attention on Jadon Sancho’s price tag but Antony has been just as disappointing at an even higher price.
Ten Hag was clearly confident that Antony would make a big impact for United but we are yet to see it with any kind of consistency.
Sunday’s body language and petulance clearly didn’t impress Neville and you would be hard-pressed to find many United fans who disagree right now.
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