Matthijs de Ligt image 4

Matthijs de Ligt Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances


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5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
22
Clean sheets
7
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
3
I would like to wait to see him under a different manager/system. Who is looking good in current setup?
I get that but that has kinda been a recurring issue with De Ligt. It’s always the “the system” or “the coach doesn't know how to use him”. Sooner or later we have to be honest and look at the player for what he is.
 
I get that but that has kinda been a recurring issue with De Ligt. It’s always the “the system” or “the coach doesn't know how to use him”. Sooner or later we have to be honest and look at the player for what he is.
His performances in the last two games have been horrendous. But he is new to the league and team, so it's a bit unfair to write him off so quickly. Players are usually given a bit time , in the new team/league.

I am more worried Martinez playing like garbage. He used to be our star player. This is not good at all
 
Him and Martinez is not a convincing partnership. Will have to see how he does with Yoro though.
 
Shades of Vidic against that Blackburn game back in 2005 when everyone thought he was too light weight for the PL.

Let's hope De Ligt isn't mentally fragile and he will learn and bulk up even more after tonight's game.
 
Reminder that people who questioned this signing back during the summer were shouted down by the hivemind

I'm not really sure why. He's never lived up to the early hype. Though, he has time on his side and he looked good in his early games. The last two games have been absolutely atrocious though.
 
He was poor but then also wasn’t. He was just straight up beaten by Samu who played well and was physically superior to him.

Wasn’t helped by Martinez having a diabolically bad performance but he should have done better.
 
He was poor, but the entire team was chaotic. I don’t see many defenders thriving when the team in front of them is at sixes and sevens.
 
At Ajax he was at his peak.
His progress stalled the last few years.
Very strange for such a young player.

He once was a leader, now he just looks like very insecure defender. Nowhere near the worldclass talent he once was.

Everybody is joking about Maguire. But De Ligt isn't much better.
 
His Juve days were so bad that Bayern splashed 70m on him and was their second most transfer ever.

Tell us you didn't watch him at Juventus without telling us.

This is revisionism honestly. You make it seem like it was all smooth sailing at Juventus. He started very poorly there and they even considered loaning him back to Ajax in January of his first season. Watch the following from 1:45:

 
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This is revisionism honestly. You make it seem like it was all smooth sailing at Juventus. He started very poorly there and they even considered loaning him back to Ajax in January. Watch the following from 1:45:



Your argument is some video that was made for 12 year olds by some braindead youtuber :lol:

Incredible. Now I see why you don't rate Maguire. Social media and other casuals don't let you.

By the way, you can make a fail comp like this one for every single centre half that's considered to be one the best defenders of the last 20 years.
 
Shades of Vidic against that Blackburn game back in 2005 when everyone thought he was too light weight for the PL.

Let's hope De Ligt isn't mentally fragile and he will learn and bulk up even more after tonight's game.
Yup. I hope that him and Ugarte are similar to Vidić and Evra in that aspect.
 
He had a very poor spell at Juventus. There's no getting away from that. He turned it around but not at the level Juventus were expecting.
 
It didn't us very long this time to destroy De Ligt. What's it been, a month?
 
His Juve days were so bad that Bayern splashed 70m on him and was their second most transfer ever.

Tell us you didn't watch him at Juventus without telling us.

Seriously his early period at Juventus was shocking. He kept hitting the ball with his arms and scoring own goals. At one point Buffon mentioned the famous nuvola di fantozzi is hanging on De ligt head. Fantozzi is the Italian version of Mr bean. Maybe Buffon and Cassano (who was also a huge critic of his at the time) didn't follow the Serie A at the time. He did improved towards in the end but he was still sold at a loss. Bayern sold him to us at a loss as well

So what went wrong during his Juventus time especially in the early part)

A- De Ligt wasn't used to Sarri, Pirlo and Allegri tactics. He did better under Allegri because the man was defensive minded and protected his defense alot
B- De Ligt came with a huge fee and a ridiculous salary (which I think will plague him throughout his entire career). With such financial package at his neck he had to perform greatly, consistently and immediately.

Hence why I am saying that his Juve time is back.
 
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It didn't us very long this time to destroy De Ligt. What's it been, a month?

Tbf I think it's mostly tactical. I think de ligt is solid but he's ridiculously overrated in here
 
We have brought in two players from Bayern in the same summer. Now, are we smarter than Bayern and have we taken two class players from them? Or have they managed to get rid of two players that were part of the reason they didn't win the league for the first time in 10 years? I know who I think is smarter of the two clubs.

Both him and Mazraoui are backup players for good teams. For United they will get to play every week and they will let you down when the chips are down. He is not good enough.
 
Tbf I think it's mostly tactical. I think de ligt is solid but he's ridiculously overrated in here

Perhaps. De Ligt started well for us but has deteriorated -- one could even argue collapsed -- since then. But to be fair, Martinez is the greater concern.
 
I remember posters saying him and Martinez were as good or better than Saliba or Gabriel as a partnership weeks ago.

The truth is he's not as bad as he's made out to be, there is no midfielder infront of him to offer any real protection. You remove Rice, Havertz and Partey and Saliba and Gabriel would struggle too. When 2 defenders know all the opposition has to do is play 3 passes and they're running at you the defenders won't really have any confidence.

I honestly feel you fix your midfield issues and your backline would improve automatically. No defender in the world can give out great performances when the midfield is non-existent.

I still feel he's too slow for this league ie to win you titles but he's not talentless. We were okay with Mertasacker, who was very slow as we had a decent midfield those years who would offer basic help like pressing or not going AWOL. As soon as we started relying on the likes of Iwobi, El Neny etc....well you guys remember those years.
 
Yep, pretty much what the Gooner says - he’s a good CB in a disorganised team. He’s putting out fires a lot of the time and struggling to assert himself.

Put him in a top 6 team’s defence and he’d probably be playing to his strengths and getting his confidence and ability back.

Keep him in this shit show with ETH at the helm and this is what you get.
 
Perhaps. De Ligt started well for us but has deteriorated -- one could even argue collapsed -- since then. But to be fair, Martinez is the greater concern.


I discussed De Ligt with a Juventus born and bred fan (45 years support, he watches them regularly live and sometimes he takes the VIP route). He told me that De Ligt is a decent player who would do well in the right system but he's ridiculously overrated. He's not a Chiellini let alone a Maldini or a Baresi. Which is kind of a problem considering the expectations there are on the guy and his salary. Some say that salaries aren't important but they are. Someone on silly salaries will need to be played regularly and he must perform all the time. In the end there are other options around who can do what De Ligt does for way cheaper.

But again, I think the issue is down to tactics. ETH has just plan A and its evident that its been exposed. His fullbacks go too much forward, Bruno and the wingers barely ever help out defensively and with one of the CM also going upfront its very easy to overload that defense.

Martinez is a concern. I never liked midget CBs in the first place and he's slowly being fount out as well.
 
I discussed De Ligt with a Juventus born and bred fan (45 years support, he watches them regularly live and sometimes he takes the VIP route). He told me that De Ligt is a decent player who would do well in the right system but he's ridiculously overrated. He's not a Chiellini let alone a Maldini or a Baresi. Which is kind of a problem considering the expectations there are on the guy and his salary. Some say that salaries aren't important but they are. Someone on silly salaries will need to be played regularly and he must perform all the time.

But again, I think the issue is down to tactics. ETH has just plan A and its evident that its been exposed. His fullbacks go too much forward, Bruno and the wingers barely ever help out defensively and with one of the CM also going upfront its very easy to overload that defense.

Martinez is a concern. I never liked midget CBs in the first place and he's slowly being fount out as well.
Who was comparing him to the greatest CB to ever live?
 
Who was comparing him to the greatest CB to ever live?

De Ligt is being paid nearly 200k a week mate. You'll expect him to be a Stam or a Chiellini but he is not, far from it.
 
No defender on the planet would do well in this suicidal system. De Ligt AND Martinez are fine.
 
I think de Ligt can do a job if paired with a fast CB, but beside Martinez it doesn't look good. Doesn't get much protection from the midfield either.
 
I think de Ligt can do a job if paired with a fast CB, but beside Martinez it doesn't look good. Doesn't get much protection from the midfield either.

De Ligt is very similar to Martinez. Both are exceptional ball players, they are very aggressive and they aren't the fastest of players. De Ligt is good in air though not to the level of being the man ball winner aerially (ex a Maguire or a Jarrad) and he's physically stronger then Martinez. I won't be surprised if we see Yoro taking Martinez place any time soon.
 
De Ligt is very similar to Martinez. Both are exceptional ball players, they are very aggressive and they aren't the fastest of players. De Ligt is good in air though not to the level of being the man ball winner aerially (ex a Maguire or a Jarrad) and he's physically stronger then Martinez. I won't be surprised if we see Yoro taking Martinez place any time soon.

Is Yoro fast? We always seem to sign players who are slow as f**k.
 
I remember posters saying him and Martinez were as good or better than Saliba or Gabriel as a partnership weeks ago.

The truth is he's not as bad as he's made out to be, there is no midfielder infront of him to offer any real protection. You remove Rice, Havertz and Partey and Saliba and Gabriel would struggle too. When 2 defenders know all the opposition has to do is play 3 passes and they're running at you the defenders won't really have any confidence.

I honestly feel you fix your midfield issues and your backline would improve automatically. No defender in the world can give out great performances when the midfield is non-existent.

I still feel he's too slow for this league ie to win you titles but he's not talentless. We were okay with Mertasacker, who was very slow as we had a decent midfield those years who would offer basic help like pressing or not going AWOL. As soon as we started relying on the likes of Iwobi, El Neny etc....well you guys remember those years.

De Ligt can be part of a great defense in my opinion, one that can even rival Arsenal's current backline.

He just needs someone next to him who has pace, can deal with any player 1v1, and can eat up ground quickly. Martínez is not good at any of these things, and de Ligt wasn't made for this either. Yoro is, however, and the only thing that could make him a better partner for de Ligt than he already is in theory, is being left-footed. But he's just 18, and I expect him to be quite raw in his first 1-2 seasons.

My issue is that Maguire is already capable of doing 99% of the stuff that de Ligt does. So why not sign a wide defender like Branthwaite and put him next to Maguire, to create a much more balanced CB duo that can deal with almost any type of defensive threat, rather than opt with Martínez next to de Ligt, a duo that doesn't have enough pace, and often not enough height either.

We basically already had the de Ligt profile in the squad, with no signs of physical decline IMO, whereas we ignored the missing wide defender profile...or you could argue that we decided to heavily depend on the 18 year old kid from France as our wide defender.

At this point, Lindelöf should replace Martínez who should be pushed to LB or the bench, with Dalot/Mazraoui at LB. And then we'll be a bit better despite Lindelöf also being far from the ideal wide defender. But Lindelöf-De Ligt would be a much more balanced duo and they'd be much more comfortable next to each other than De Ligt next to with Martínez.
 
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Is Yoro fast? We always seem to sign players who are slow as f**k.

Yoro is fast.

De Ligt can be part of a great defense in my opinion, one that can even rival Arsenal's current backline.

He just needs someone next to him who has pace, can deal with any player 1v1, and can eat up ground quickly. Martínez is not good at any of these things, and de Ligt wasn't made for this either. Yoro is, however, and the only thing that could make him a better partner for de Ligt than he already is in theory, is being left-footed. But he's just 18, and I expect him to be quite raw in his first 1-2 seasons.

My issue is that Maguire is already capable of doing 99% of the stuff that de Ligt does. So why not sign a wide defender like Branthwaite and put him next to Maguire, to create a much more balanced CB duo that can deal with almost any type of defensive threat, rather than opt with Martínez next to de Ligt, a duo that doesn't have enough pace, and often not enough height either.

The De Ligt signing was kind of weird though. He seems to be a more EPL friendly version of Martinez. I wonder if the club had anticipated Martinez lack of height as an issue and are slowly moving away from that. The Martinez fanboys keep saying that his lack of height isn't an issue but it is. We were very vulnerable on crosses and set pieces + we became McT dependent precisely because of Scott's 6ft3 frame. If you notice this season we barely signed any player whose not 6ft+ so there's really a push to add some height and athleticism into that team.

Jarrad is basically Maguire with pace bro. He's a concrete wall like Maguire is, he's superb in air like Maguire is but his passing success rate is shocking. Jarrad would be perfect with a De Ligt, a Martinez or even a Yoro but not Maguire
 
De Ligt is being paid nearly 200k a week mate. You'll expect him to be a Stam or a Chiellini but he is not, far from it.
So if we have the 4th highest paid CB in the league, you expect him to be the greatest CB of all time (previously mentioned Maldini)? Sure.
 
Tbf I think it's mostly tactical. I think de ligt is solid but he's ridiculously overrated in here
Yep. And people didn’t want to hear that and shouted down everyone who suggested it. He’s a good player. But nothing more.