Antony's sizzling left foot can be the right choice for Manchester United

It took a little over half-an-hour of their professional relationship for Antony Matheus Dos Santos, a dazzling winger freshly arrived from his native Brazil, to show Erik ten Hag, his head coach at Ajax, what constitutes a ‘typical’ Antony goal. The player was making his league debut in Rotterdam against Sparta on a warm September afternoon, and, receiving the ball while tucked in from his position wide on the right, he cut inside.

The cut inside, right to left, is Antony’s first instinct, as Ten Hag, now busy assembling a plan to revive Manchester United, knows as well as anybody who has coached him.

In fact, Antony’s cut inside is as thoroughly signposted to opponents as any aspect of a 22-year-old footballer’s game can be. Ten Hag, who worked as an assistant at Bayern Munich when Arjen Robben was commanding that club’s right flank, has compared him to the flying Dutchman. The preferred manoeuvre both players share, the glide from right to left, was partly why he likened them.

Robben spent 20 years at the top of the game, and used to joke that everybody eventually forecast correctly what he was most likely to do when he received the ball.

“I’ll cut inside, obviously,” he would smile, confident that although defenders knew which was his stronger foot, and would automatically anticipate him shepherding the ball towards the best place to strike or cross it with his left, simply being predictable was not the same as being tameable.

After his first half-hour of action in Eredivisie, feeling out how deep Sparta wanted to defend, Antony took a bold gamble. His cut inside had taken him to 25 yards from goal and he unleashed a low, angled shot that bounced in front of the goalkeeper and into the corner of the net.

SOUTHAMPTON