Antony treads the line of confidence and arrogance

“We’ve missed a player on the right wing. All the players, they can play there, like Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, but they prefer the centre or the left side. Now we have a player who can play good from the right wing – a missing link.”

Erik ten Hag has pushed hard for Manchester United to sign Antony all summer, and his trust and desires were given early vindication on Sunday afternoon at a raucous Old Trafford. Antony marked his United bow with a goal, and while not perfect, as debuts go, this was one of the better ones.

Last week Manchester United finally caved in to the €100m price tag their former club, Ajax, had put on his head for the final days of the transfer window – a massive price and a large overspend, granted, but it’s what Ten Hag wanted. Now he has his man and the early signs are good.

We’ve had plenty of experience of Manchester United buying players for a lot of money. It often goes wrong. Ten Hag has sidelined club captain Harry Maguire over the last three weeks – United’s third most expensive signing – and wasn’t able to stop United losing Paul Pogba, their most expensive ever, leaving on a free transfer for the second time in his career earlier this summer.

Neither Pogba, at £89m, nor Maguire, £80m, have proven successful in United red. Antony’s fee now sits between the two but his appearance on Sunday inspired enough confidence to think his United fate may not follow the same path as theirs – at least early on.

Antony was brought to Europe by Ten Hag two seasons ago, and elevated to the levels of a (debatably of course) €100m player under his guidance. Ten Hag has been adamant in his belief Antony is capable of the step up and able to deal with the pressure that comes with it. And it’s only taken 55 minutes of one appearance to see the qualities in the Brazilian he wanted to bring across with him from Amsterdam.

The 22-year-old slotted straight in to the starting lineup after minimal training with his new team in large part due to his familiarity with the Ten Hag way of playing, which United, though they’ve won four on the bounce in the Premier League, have not yet mastered. Even Casemiro, a multiple time Champions League winner, isn’t up to speed from the get go and can’t earn a place. He has the mighty Scott McTominay to oust.

There’s a long road to getting this team playing in the manager’s image and while some boxes have been ticked, there are plenty more to come. Familiarity is key to ticking the boxes faster.

Antony may…