Double standards in solving the same problem at United

In the last few days it’s the same old Manchester United as before the arrival of Erik ten Hag. It started with the press conference after the Arsenal game and is currently ending with Antony’s domestic violence allegations.

The English big club was struggling with the same problem two years ago as it is now. Mason Greenwood was charged with domestic violence, this time it’s Brazilian Antony in his position. As soon as the allegations in the Greenwood case surfaced, United dropped him from the squad with immediate effect and subsequently conducted an investigation within the club. The ward eventually had to leave United on loan anyway.

Today the club issued a statement regarding Antony: “Manchester United acknowledges the allegations made and the conduct of the police investigation. Pending further information, the club will not comment further. As a club we are taking into consideration the impact of these allegations and what the consequences will be for the person being abused.”

No audio recording was leaked to the public at the time the allegations were made, as in the Greenwood case, but it is the same situation in which the club acted differently. We can say that in each case the club had a different manager, but in these matters the management should step in and alert the manager to how the club acted last time.

Let’s go back to the post match press conference where the Hag said Sancho was not in the squad because of his performance in training, a claim immediately refuted by the player himself. So the Englishman is probably facing a disciplinary punishment, which also befell Marcus Rashford and Cristiano Ronaldo last season. Marcus Rashford was not in the starting eleven after coming on a few minutes late for training, so Sancho is not expecting anything pleasant.

The manager’s criticism of a player shouldn’t be this public, but should be dealt with privately at the club. The Hag has probably seen such practices with Jose Mourinho with whom, however, the named player does not have the courage to hit back. If the coach doesn’t have respect he should find another way to impress the players, if that was supposed to be a motivation it didn’t work out well.

At Manchester United, however, these problems have one thing in common. Antony has never been the only one to be criticised by the coach, nor has he been placed out of the squad because of the allegations. Meanwhile, the Brazilian doesn’t perform well, he scores the occasional goal, but every defender has read him. The winger excels mainly in defensive work, but you would rather see some numbers from an offensive player.

So far, it looks like Antony is the favourite of Haga, who won’t let the Brazilian down as evidenced by the fact that more than one player had better form during last season, but Antony still played. The Brazilian cost 95 million euros and managed 8 goals in 44 games. He should increase his productivity significantly this season, especially with the fans very supportive.

Source: Fabrizio Romano, Manchester United