Erik ten Hag expecting more from Antony after fast start at Man Utd

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag expects Antony to continue delivering high quality performances after his red-hot start at Old Trafford.

The Brazilian became the first player in the club's history to score in their first three Premier League appearances, with Sunday's equalising goal against Everton laying the foundations for United to go on and secure a vital 2-1 win at Goodison Park.

Antony's goal, a trademark curling effort with his left foot past Jordan Pickford, was rich reward for a gritty display that was full of promise. But Ten Hag vowed after the game that there's more to come from the 22-year-old summer signing from Ajax - the Dutchman citing the need for improvement in certain areas of Antony's game despite his good work so far.

"We have to expect more from him,” Ten Hag told reporters. "He needs challenges, that’s why he came to the Premier League and he gets that here. He wants to play with the best players and the highest stress factors and against the best players.

"From there on he will step up and that’s what you see. [In the] First week he was scoring goals and he has done good stuff but I also see a lot of room for improvement in his game.

"What I was happy with is the goal [against Everton] was out of a moment of getting in behind – he has to do that more and use his pace.

Listen now to 90min's Manchester United podcast, The Promised Land, with Scott Saunders & Rob Blanchette. In the latest episode they discuss how Casemiro, Cristiano Ronaldo & Luke Shaw performed against Everton, as well looking ahead to facing Omonia on Thursday.

Specifically on Antony's decision making and what he can work on, Ten Hag continued: "He is a good dribbler but he also has to make more variations and in the first game he was not always that good defending wise. But this time he was really good, he was really disciplined and had good positioning, good anticipation and good pressing and he had quite an impact on this team performance.

“He can go both ways with both feet. He has to work on that point. We already did that in Amsterdam with him, working on that. He can cross with his right foot too but he’s a young player who we have to develop and he has to develop himself too.”

Antony may be afforded a rest for Thursday's Europa League clash with Omonia, given United then host an in-form Newcastle back in the Premier League just three days later.