10 duels won, 6 recoveries: €28m United star repays Ten Hag's faith with fantastic performance
Manchester United winger Antony repaid the faith of manager Erik ten Hag by opening the scoring in the 1-1 Premier League draw against Burnley on Saturday.
The Brazil international has had a difficult campaign. He went into the Clarets game without a single goal from his previous 26 league appearances this season.
Antony had a lively start where he induced a stop from goalkeeper Arijanet Muric before diverting the ball narrowly wide.
He faded out of the game for a while but made amends by bagging the first goal in the 79th minute.
The majority of the fans at Old Trafford were not pleased with Rasmus Hojlund being taken off ahead of Antony, but the Brazilian repaid the manager’s faith.
The 24-year-old capitalised on a defensive mistake from Sander Berge. He still needed to show composure in the box after he was fouled in the lead-up.
Aside from his goal, the €28 million-rated star completed 88 per cent of his passes with 62 touches.
He won an impressive 10 ground and aerial duels alongside four tackles and six recoveries.
It was one of his best performances of the campaign. The onus is now on him to replicate the showing when United face Crystal Palace on the road on May 6.
Marcus Rashford could be available for the south London trip after a minor injury, but we believe Antony should be backed to start ahead of the Englishman.
United are currently sixth with 54 points, one ahead of seventh-placed Newcastle United. They need to return to winning ways to stay in the Europa League race.
After the visit of Selhurst Park, the Red Devils have back-to-back home games against Arsenal and Newcastle before a final day trip to Brighton & Hove Albion.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com, Sofascore.com & Fotmob.com