Literally every player that gets transferred to United eventually starts to underperform and fall off a cliff compared to their past performances and the conversation always ends up being how United has overpaid for said player or how they weren’t cut out for premier league or how they’re too old now but very rarely do people bring up how United might just be a graveyard for talent and the systemic issues at the club make the players worse instead of the other way around. It happened with Maguire, Sancho and Anthony. Now Casemiro and Varane are in talks of being possibly sold and the conversation around that is again revolving around how Real scammed United and that they’re falling off because of their ages (Varane is literally still 30 and Casemiro is 31). I’m willing to bet that if Doku had moved to United instead of City, he would’ve also had an incredibly difficult time and people would be laughing at United saying how they got rinsed paying 70 million for a talent that performed well in Ligue 1 for a single season. I think we should really stop judging players too harshly based on their performances under this United side.
Using Antony as an example:
He was playing for Ajax. Ajax were the strongest team in a league that struggles to be ranked in the top 10 leagues in Europe.
So he was playing for the strongest team in a weak league where a lot of the opposition teams were pretty poor.
His teammates were some of the best in the league. He had solid defenders behind him, top attackers fo get him assists and top creators to get him goals.
So he looks great.
Then he moves to a team who are struggling to fight near the top of what is arguably the most competitive league in world football. The defence is struggling, meaning he is required to chase back far more. The attackers are impotent, meaning he gets fewer assists, and the best creative player (Bruno) is often forced to play out of position, meaning he gets fewer chances created for him. Add to that the fact that pretty much every single opposing left back in the league knows that he wants to cut inside onto his stronger foot now, and you get a player struggling.
Antony would have struggled in pretty much any team in the league.
Let’s look at your Doku example.
I’m not sure he would have struggled as much for Man U as you expect. He was performing well in a more competitive league, for a side who weren’t the best in the league. Or even the second best. He was playing for Rennes for 3 seasons, who finished 4th last season, 4th the season before that, and 6th the season before. So, pretty much Man U’s level.
Last season he managed 6 goals and 2 assists in the league. Season before that, 1 goal and 2 assists, season before that, 2 goals and 3 assists. Not brilliant numbers, but this season he’s already got 2 goals and 5 assists, which is a great return in a debut season in the Premier League.
One thing you’re not factoring in when it comes to people shitting on Antony is how incredibly unlikeable he comes across as on the pitch. Doku seems to play with a smile whilst Antony plays with a scowl. As such, people seem happier to give Doku the benefit of the doubt more than Antony.
He’s not the only player under-performing though. Sancho, Casemiro, Varane and Mount are all having a difficult time. Eriksen did decent last season but is on a single goal and assist so far, he still seems to be performing at a good level but it’s not translating into goals/ assists because no one is scoring. Both Ronaldo and Cavani fell off in their second seasons in the past. Rashford is always oscillating between hot and cold patches. Apart from Bruno, none of the players seem to be performing at a good enough level consistently. Others that do perform like Aaron Wan bissaka and Luke Shaw seem to be quite injury prone. This is a huge sample size of players that are under-performing and I don’t think it’s fair to attribute the failures of the club to the players anymore.
I forgot how Mount was absolutely tearing up the league last season before his move…