“Smash him…” Manchester United player SLAMMED for key moment vs Brighton

Manchester United’s Antony has been slammed for his role in Brighton’s winning goal against Erik ten Hag’s men on Saturday afternoon.

After a promising start to the season with a victory over Fulham, Manchester United faced a surprising defeat against Brighton on Saturday afternoon.

The match was evenly contested at first, but Brighton took the lead in the 30th minute when Danny Welbeck scored against Erik ten Hag’s defence. Marcus Rashford quickly responded with a goal, but it was disallowed for offside.

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In the second half, Amad Diallo managed to score an equalizer, but Alejandro Garnacho’s follow-up goal was ruled out for offside after the ball had touched Joshua Zirkzee.

As the game neared its end, Joao Pedro capitalized on a lapse in defence and headed in the winning goal moments before the final whistle.

While many have pointed to the gaping space that United left Pedro for his tidy header at the death, former Premier League defenders Joe Cole and Rio Ferdinand have pointed to a moment with United winger Antony moments on the edge of the area.

Before Simon Adingra had the ball at his feet to put the cross in, Antony had the chance to steal possession from the 22-year-old but failed to do so. He ran into him and untimely left the ball in the area.

The former Premier League pair picked up on this and criticised Antony for not doing enough ahead of the goal.

“When there’s been five substitutions, man, you’ve got to deal with it. You need to be leaders talking the first one,” Cole told TNT Sports after the tie.

“They don’t deal with the first bit [and] here comes out Antony. He has to be better. He has to deal with that. And in the secondary situations, a lovely ball in. 

“But there’s no one there with a body shape in the right position, and it’s three of them queuing up at the far post. From Manchester United’s perspective, you’d be furious here.

On Antony’s moment, Ferdinand then added: “He has to smash him there, he has to go through that and take everything. Antony there. 

“It’s a part of puff tackle which allowed to get this moment. But this is the second phase. Joe’s talking about, we you work on this a lot. You work on the first phase. The first corner, it goes out, recycles. then its about repositioning. Get ourselves in order. Man united. Do not do that.”

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