Manchester United won their first Premier League game back in a while, 4–2, against Sheffield United at home on Wednesday night. United are currently at the bottom of the table.
The Red Devils had a rough time because they fell behind twice. After Andre Onana made a mistake, Jayden Bogle scored the first goal for the Blades. Seven minutes later, Harry Maguire tied the game with a great flicked header.
In the fifth minute of the second half, Ben Brereton Diaz gave Sheffield United the lead again. Bruno Fernandes scored two goals, one from the penalty spot and the other an excellent long-range strike, and Rasmus Hojlund scored with a deft finish. This gave United all three points.
Ethan Wheatley, 18, made history just over 24 hours after scoring twice against Manchester City to help the U18s win the Premier League Cup final. He became the 250th player from United’s youth system to play for the first team.
However, one Red Devils player had a terrible night at Old Trafford and was taken off early in the second half, even though the game ended in a memorable way.
Antony’s game against Sheffield United with a lot of people
Antony is the man in question. He only played for 55 minutes before Amad came on and took his place. The Brazilian had a rough night. He hasn’t really found his feet at Old Trafford and has had a huge problem this season. This season, he hasn’t scored in the Premier League yet and has only set up one goal.
In his review of the game, Samuel Luckhurst of the Manchester Evening News gave Antony a terrible 4/10. The fact that Antony had “little end product despite some reasonable openings” is clear from the game data.
According to Sofascore, the player had two shots, but neither one hit the goal. He also only finished half of his dribbles, which was two. The 24-year-old lost the ball 13 times, which is about every four minutes. He also only won three of his 11 duels and was dribbled past twice. It was yet another disappointing showing.
Given how well Antony played all night, his replacement just before the hour mark wasn’t a big surprise. United fans were also likely happy to see Amad get another chance, since he has only had a few since his FA Cup efforts against Liverpool in the quarterfinal.
How Amad played against Sheffield United
Ivorian winger Amad is frustrated because he has only played three times since scoring United’s FA Cup winner last month. That includes Wednesday’s game against Sheffield United. That being said, he made his mark on the game again when he had the rare chance to do so.
The former Atalanta player had 28 touches in just 35 minutes and completed 17/18 of his passes, giving him a 94% pass success. Although Amad had trouble without the ball and only won two of his duels, he showed great close control when he slid in and out of Sheffield United players right after coming on, giving United a chance in the box.
After another poor game for Antony against Chris Wilder’s team, this could be a great chance for Diallo to become a more frequent starter for United.
Alejandro Garnacho moved to the left side when Marcus Rashford got hurt. If that happens again on Saturday against Burnley, Erik ten Hag may choose the young attacker and give him his first start of the season.
Any way you look at it, United fans will want to see more of Amad. In the FA Cup quarterfinal and in his other short games this season, he showed them exactly what he can do. He can dribble the ball very well and knows a lot about football. He showed against Sheffield United and in other games that he has everything he needs to do well at Old Trafford.
The Red Devils’ next game is at home against Burnley on Saturday at 3 p.m. They then have some tough games at the end of the season, including one at home against Arsenal. Of course, everything is building up to the FA Cup final next month. They hope to make up for last season’s loss to Manchester City by beating them.
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