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Soccer

Gordon Strachan reveals why Man Utd winger Antony 'reminds me of Ronaldo'

Gordon Strachan reveals why Man Utd winger Antony 'reminds me of Ronaldo'DAZN

Former Manchester United midfielder Gordon Strachan believes that Antony is similar in some ways to Cristiano Ronaldo.

The two wingers had slightly similar starts to their Old Trafford careers, with both dismissed for their lack of end product.

Ronaldo, of course, would go on to become one of the greatest players of all time, while Antony has so far simply established himself as an important contributor to the first team under Erik ten Hag as the season has progressed.

United have won the Carabao Cup this season, and while they exited the Europa League Conference last week, they managed to secure an FA Cup final berth up against Manchester City at the end of the season, and appear likely to secure a top-four finish despite recent injury problems.

Strachan recalled the differences and similarities of the two players.

 “Well he has assets,” he told casinosite.nl. “He kind of reminds me of Ronaldo, although it’s never nice to throw another name in the mix. He seems to think he is, but I don’t think he’s anywhere near as good as Ronaldo. There’s too much work on the ball. When Ronaldo first got there, at that point you had people in the team who would tell Ronaldo the truth and say ‘excuse me, we don’t want you dancing about when you can cross it in earlier! Use your ability to get in good areas and produce something. We’re not here to see you.’ 

“I think at that point Ronaldo took on board what Sir Alex was saying, what Roy Keane and Paul Scholes was saying. He understood what they wanted from him and he became this once in a lifetime player, well apart from Messi, of course, this unbelievable player. I don’t think Antony can get anywhere near where Ronaldo reached but I think he’s got to ask himself; ‘am I doing this for myself or am I doing it for the team?’ 

“If you’re genuinely doing it for the team then fine. If you’re doing it for yourself then cut it out. It’s the kind of thing Neymar does. He does it for himself. You never see the top players try and ridicule the players they’re playing with. 

“They do it for the team with humility. Ronaldo picked it up really early and still understands that. The last couple of weeks we’ve seen magical things from him [Antony] but sometimes when life’s not great you have to be a good teammate first.”