Anthony Elanga Shows Manchester United Everything They Are Missing

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It took just over 5 minutes for Anthony Elanga to score the eventual winner in Tuesday night's clash between high-flying Nottingham Forest and underperforming Manchester United at the City Ground.

The Swede recovered the ball from a Bruno Fernandes corner, driving nearly fifty yards into the Manchester United half and shoving off the lunging United defenders. When the United defenders hesitated to step to the winger, he punished them, sliding the ball past Onana into the bottom left corner. The early goal turned out to be the only one of the night.

Elanga is one of Nottingham Forest's top performers in a squad filled with team-of-the-season candidates, but before moving to Forest in 2023, the 22-year-old made 55 first-team appearances for Manchester United, scoring only 4 goals. His goal against United tonight was his 6th of the season, meaning that with 8 games still to play, the 23-year-old is enjoying a career-best year in front of goal.

Elanga is one of several players who’ve failed to perform at Manchester United in recent years. Even much-maligned Brazilian winger Antony is finding his form since leaving the Red Devils on loan to Real Betis in January, where he’s accumulated 4 goals and assists in just 8 starts in Spain.

Whether this underperformance is down to managerial decision-making or the pressure cooker environment of playing for the biggest club in England, it’s a trend new manager Ruben Amorim will need to put a stop to in the summer if he hopes to hold onto his job for much longer than that. With the club languishing in 13th, it’s clear he hasn’t figured out how to do that just yet.

Elanga is thriving in Nuno Espírito Santo’s system at Forest. Santo’s side rarely controls more than 35% of possession but rips teams apart on the counter-attack, largely thanks to the rapid pace of players like Elanga.

In the game against Manchester United, the tactics were glaringly obvious, with United controlling possession for most of the game but failing to break the deadlock. Forest sat back and absorbed the pressure before springing at United’s inexperienced defense with rapid speed. United came closest with some scrappy efforts towards the end of the game, but throwing Harry Maguire into the box to try and scrape back an equalizer is not a long-term solution.

It was a battle between a side whose methodology is clear and one whose identity is still to be determined. If Elanga’s form is anything to go by, United needs Amorim to figure out that identity as soon as possible before more players start to head for the door.