Marco van Basten claims Manchester United got it wrong with “confused” Antony

Former Ajax manager Marco van Basten recently criticized Manchester United’s Antony and claimed the Reds got the wrong winger from Ajax.

In the summer of 2022, Manchester United shelled out around £85 million to secure the services of the Brazilian from Erik ten Hag‘s former club Ajax. However, despite scoring on his first three league matches for United, the Brazilian’s recent performances have come under a lot of scrutiny.

Since his impressive run in the first few matches of him donning the Red shirt, Antony has failed to find the back of the net in the league yet. Antony has, however, at times earned cheers from the crowd, thanks to his fancy footwork, often those “stunts” have been labelled as just an eye candy.

In a conversation with Ziggo Sport, via the Daily Mail, the former striker for Ajax and AC Milan said claimed that Manchester United got it al wrong with the 22-year-old. The former Netherlands striker further eulogized about, Ajax’s African winger, Mohammed Kudus. The 58-year-old continued to sing praises of the Ghanian international.

“I find Mohammed Kudus a much better football player than Antony. Antony has his skills, but he is confused with the things he is trying to do!”

“Kudus has much better technique and he knows what he is doing. Antony may be faster, but Kudus is smarter and more technical. 

“He is much more of a footballer, you can place him anywhere on the pitch, an all-rounder for the team. In fact, I like him much better than Antony. He’s more fun to watch play,” Van Basten added.

Kudus, 22, has been directly involved in 18 goals in 30 appearances for the Dutch club. He has also signs of versatility as he has been deployed as a centre-forward, right winger as well as an attacking midfielder.

The Ghanian international has racked up nine goals as a striker this season. According to a few reports, Kudus is also on Manchester United’s radar for the next season.

Antony, after a goal-scoring start for Manchester United, has dwindled in his end-product recently, and has also suffered from injury problems. Ten Hag, however, has heaped praise on the young winger he has now worked with at two separate clubs.

When he’s playing (full games), the team is winning,” Ten Hag explained ahead of United’s semi-final against Nottingham Forest a few weeks ago. “That already gives a message of how well he is performing.”

However, despite this, Ten Hag does recognise the point that Antony can do better by becoming more direct and more involved in games.

“He can do better, I see space for improvement. For instance, and I think also you know this, we want him to be more direct and be more involved. But as I said, the team is performing better if he is on the pitch. That’s a good thing, that’s a good base to build further.”

It is not yet known if Antony will be available to face Barcelona, however with the form that Marcus Rashford is in and Jadon Sancho is starting to find, they are both likely to start against the Catalan club regardless.