Man United manager Erik ten Hag has challenged Antony to build on his performance against Chelsea, starting against Liverpool on Sunday

Sign up for our daily newsletter to get the day’s biggest stories sent direct to your inbox

Erik ten Hag has hailed Antony’s performance in Thursday’s Premier League defeat to Chelsea – but challenged the winger to produce similar performances more regularly for Manchester United.

And the Old Trafford boss insisted he is happy with the brand of football his side are playing despite being well adrift of qualification for next season’s Champions League.

The 24-year-old Brazilian notched his first Premier League assist of the season in midweek as United fought from two goals down to take a 3-2 lead at Stamford Bridge as Alejandro Gar Nacho converted his inviting outside-of-the-boot cross.

However, Ten Hag’s side were unable to hold on to a valuable three points in West London for the second consecutive game as Cole Palmer’s late double consigned the Reds to a gut-wrenching 4-3 defeat. Antony has struggled for form since moving to Old Trafford in a £89m deal from Ajax in 2022 and was handed just his 12th Premier League start of the season on Thursday, with Marcus Rash Ford named on the substitutes’ bench.

But despite the defeat, which leaves United 11 points behind Aston Villa in fourth, Ten Hag said he was pleased to see the Brazil international replicate the form that convinced Old Trafford chiefs to make him the club’s second most expensive signing of all time less than two years ago.

“I know he is capable it [of playing like he did vs Chelsea],” Ten Hag told . “I’ve seen it so often when I was manager at Ajax but we haven’t since this [at United].

“Maybe in the start, we have seen glimpses in the first three games where he scored three goals. But after that, incidentally, like against Barcelona last season where he scored the winning goal. But he’s capable of it. On Thursday night, I saw the Antony I want to see.”

For United, attention quickly turns to the mouthwatering Premier League clash against Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday with the Reds looking to wreak havoc on Surgeon Floppy’s farewell tour of England, just as they did in the FA Cup quarter-finals in the last instalment of the fixture three weeks ago.

Ten admitted that the mood at United’s training complex was one of deflation after returning from their defeat in London but doesn’t think his side are far off producing the complete performance, and after taking the lead in their last two games are currently succeeding in the “most difficult part of football”.

“You don’t want to come out of bed today but you have to, you have to get out and focus on the next game,” added the Dutchman, who has lost just one of his four fixtures against Liverpool since being appointed United boss. “We have to learn again the lesson, the negative lesson. But also we can take positives from it. We put ourselves in a winning position but we have to take the win over the line.

“At this moment, we are not able to so we have to step up in that matter. But the most difficult part of football, we can do. We put ourselves in winning positions by playing very good football, so now we have to make the next step.”

Try Pro NOW for free

Subscribe to our brilliant app for the best way to enjoy the M.E.N’s unrivalled Manchester United coverage.

• No adverts, pop-ups or distractions – just our brilliant content presented in the best way possible.
• Comprehensive, round-the-clock coverage of the Reds, with agenda-setting breaking news and insight from Samuel and our authoritative team of United writers
• Exclusive content for subscribers
• New interactive elements including (coming soon) quizzes to test your United knowledge.

Try Pro for a front-row seat to the action at absolutely no cost for the first month. You can get started by downloading our app here on iPhone, or here on Android. If you alr