Erik ten Hag names weakness that Anthony is ‘working on’ & claims Man Utd star will ‘step up’

Erik ten Hag has revealed Antony is trying to improve his weaker right foot in training, and the Manchester United manager said his summer signing still has plenty of room to ‘develop’.

The winger has settled in quickly at United and has netted in all of his opening three Premier League matches, something no other player has previously done in the club’s illustrious history.

Antony was on target again on Sunday as the Red Devils came from behind to beat Everton 2-1 at Goodison Park. His goal on 15 minutes changed the course of the game and from there the visitors went on to dominate.

Yet the Brazilian predominantly uses his left foot and rarely plays with his right side. Speaking after the game, Ten Hag revealed Antony has been trying to improve this specific area of his game since their time together at Ajax.

“He can and he has to go both ways,” the Dutchman said in his post-match press conference. “He has to work on that point [using his right foot.

“We already did that in Amsterdam with him, working on that. He can cross with his right foot too but he’s a young player who we have to develop and he has to develop himself too.”

United spent £86 to bring in Antony this summer and evidently he is a player that Ten Hag rates highly. But at just 22 there is still so much room for improvement with United’s No.21, as his manager explained on Sunday.

“We have to expect more from him,” said Ten Hag. “He needs challenges, that’s why he came to the Premier League and he gets that here. He wants to play with the best players and the highest stress factors and against the best players.

“From there on he will step up and that’s what you see. First week he was scoring goals and he has done good stuff but I also see a lot of room for improvement in his game. What I was happy with is the goal tonight was out of a moment of getting in behind – he has to do that more and use his pace.

“He is a good dribbler,” Ten Hag added, “but he also has to make more variations and in the first game he was not always that good defending-wise and also today he was really good, he was really disciplined and had good positioning, good anticipation and good pressing and he had quite an impact on this team performance.”