Gary Neville ambitiously hopes Antony can turn into a ‘Riyad Mahrez-type player’

Antony had another game to forget for Manchester United at Nottingham Forest (Picture: Getty Images)

Gary Neville believes Antony could still go on to become a ‘Riyad Mahrez-type player’ for Manchester United, despite his struggles to make an impact for the Red Devils so far.

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The winger has not been very impressive since arriving from Ajax in the summer of 2022, scoring eight goals in his first season but failing to find the back of the net so far this campaign.

While it is not surprising that the 23-year-old needs time to adapt to life in the Premier League, his initial price of £82m has made his lack of output look all the more baffling.

Neville, though, thinks there is still hope for the Brazil international, feeling that he can focus on optimising a couple of parts of his game, rather than over-complicating things, then he could replicate former Manchester City star Mahrez.

‘He has to develop a pattern in his game so his team-mates understand what he’s doing,’ Neville said of Antony on commentary duty for Sky Sports. ‘That can be just simplifying it. Mahrez is someone I’ve said before that he should really go and watch and study and look at.

‘[Mahrez] only did a couple of simple things in the game but he was always very effective. His team-mates could read his moves. Look, [Antony] has got courage and he always gets on the ball, but what you need obviously is end product and he’s going to be judged upon that.

‘That will come maybe as he gets a little bit older. But to start with, what he has to do is just start to create parts of his game that are consistent. He’s so inconsistent and that can be any young winger.

Riyad Mahrez won four Premier League titles and the Champions League with Manchester City (Picture: Getty Images)

‘A young Cristiano Ronaldo was very inconsistent but eventually developed things that became repetitive to him and he obviously became one of the great players in the world. Antony is not going to be that but he certainly can become a Riyad Mahrez-type player.’

The Algeria international won the Premier League title with Leicester before lifting it four more times with City, along with the Champions League title, scoring 78 goals for Pep Guardiola’s side in all competitions.

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