Matthijs de Ligt image 4

Matthijs de Ligt Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances

View full 2024-25 profile

5.8 Season Average Rating
Appearances
15
Clean sheets
6
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
2
P-Nut said:
If you watch the training vid of him from the other day it's a feature of his game. He's the front foot defender and usually has his partner covering behind him. It's why I think Yoro will work better with either De Ligt or Martinez rather than a Martinez - De Ligt partnership as both have a tendancy to try and win the ball high.
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It will be interesting to see how he forms a partnership with Martinez. As you say both like to attack the ball but it could work very well too as both are intelligent enough to cover for each other too.
 
criticalanalysis said:
Yup, got away with that as it could have ended badly. Hopefully he'll get that out of his system. English football lives and die by the channels so he'll have to adjust very quickly.

Looks quite sharp though with his mobility.
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Yup noticed this too. I am sure EtH will have a word with him. Hopefully just attributable to dusting off the cobwebs and getting used to his teammates. Want him to succeed.
 
Foolsgold21 said:
Anyone else find it weird when he charged to near the touchline at one point, leaving a huge space behind?

Solid other than that.
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Damn I saw that I was like NOOO what you doing charging in like that but nothing came of it phew.

Otherwise he was fine, just played 10mins or so, so not much to take away from
 
FujiVice said:
It was strange when he came on, because I had this weird thing of going "De Ligt plays for United?"

Like its one thing reading it, its another seeing him on the field. Same with Zlatan, it was odd seeing him in the United shirt initially.
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For me the weirdest was RvP. Still feels odd.
 
Solid first outing. As a front foot defender it’s not surprising to see him sometimes get caught out but as has been mentioned he recovers well generally. Normally as well the team reacts around him covering which takes time and work. Him at about level 6 out of 10.
 
its from the article in The Athletic: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/57...t-manchester-united-inside-deal/?redirected=1

I liked this bit in the article:

However, there was competing interest from other clubs when De Ligt’s situation at Bayern became clear. His representatives were contacted by French champions Paris Saint-Germain and Spanish giants Barcelona, but both were made aware that United were in pole position. De Ligt’s desire to reunite with Ten Hag and fondness for the English club were the determining factors — with Spain’s European champions Real Madrid understood to be the only other team who could have forced him into a difficult decision.
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Foolsgold21 said:
Anyone else find it weird when he charged to near the touchline at one point, leaving a huge space behind?

Solid other than that.
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Yeah saw that. He‘s still bedding in I guess, that was bad judgment.
 
Brighton 2:1 Man Utd
Will be calls for him to start now, but when he does I hope he is a bit more circumspect with his pressing, been spun more than few times in these cameos due to hyper aggressive pressing. I know that is his style and strength but dial it back a little maybe.
 
Needs to start next game ahead of Maguire. No two ways about it. He's been brought it to replace him so do it now.
 
Bobski said:
Will be calls for him to start now, but when he does I hope he is a bit more circumspect with his pressing, been spun more than few times in these cameos due to hyper aggressive pressing. I know that is his style and strength but dial it back a little maybe.
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It’s hard to judge him off a couple of short cameos, be nice to see him start against the scousers.
 
Lu Tze said:
Perhaps instead of Martinez, given he's been (far) worse than Maguire, and De Ligt can play LCB.
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Ending the game I wouldn't mind that but starting it, I wouldn't bother unless we are facing spam crossing, aerial juggernauts. Maguire is simply not good enough on the ball and not that better in defence (unless in certains situations) to start with de Ligt head of Martinez.
 
Man Utd 0:3 Liverpool
The only bright spot today.
 
Thought he looked good. He needs to be a starter from here on in; Martinez on the other hand...
 
Very good at defending his own box. Not sure how he is in open spaces, but time will tell in the rare games we actually dominate.
 
Was decent, but clearly not fully fit. Even being completely exposed, didn't look too bad.
 
He plays like a guy who thinks he is much quicker than he is. Did ok, but he has a tendency to over commit, lunge in and then have a ton of space to cover to get back.

A functioning midfield helps but he has a lot of the same issues as Maguire, if not as pronounced.
 
Looked really good.

A lot of people saying we were good for the first 20 minutes or whatever it was, but De Ligt papered over the cracks with a number of really important tackles after Liverpool had ghosted through our midfield.
 
He's clearly a very good penalty box defender and he and Martinez masked a lot of problems in the 1st half hour but he has lunged in at least once in every game because he's clearly uncomfortable when forced to defend in space. The notion last year was that part of the reason we were giving up so many chances was that our defenders were too slow and therefore there were huge gaps between the front and back of the team, I'm not sure how now having another centre back who is slow on the turn to partner our other centre back who is slow on the turn will fix that issue.
 
Did great overall but this is the 2nd goal (after Brighton) where he's been sucked into the near post for no fecking reason. I actually think Maguire would have defended that 1st goal better.
 
I don't really see what he offers that's any different to Maguire. Is he any quicker? Is he better at defending the open spaces? Is he better on the ball? Doesn't look like he has noticeably more agility? Almost a like-for-like replacement.
 
Pronewbie said:
Did great overall but this is the 2nd goal (after Brighton) where he's been sucked into the near post for no fecking reason. I actually think Maguire would have defended that 1st goal better.
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He didn't look behind himself once from the moment the ball was worked to the right.
 
zapp said:
I don't really see what he offers that's any different to Maguire. Is he any quicker? Is he better at defending the open spaces? Is he better on the ball? Doesn't look like he has noticeably more agility? Almost a like-for-like replacement.
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Yes, yes and yes. He is comparable to Maguire in profile but he is much younger, has great leadership qualities and is better at every aspect of defending.
 
Yeah, he did alright today. I can't praise him too highly because we conceded 3 goals, but none of those goals were largely down to him. It's a fight between Maguire and Martinez with who plays next to him...until Yoro is available.
 
I thought Maguire looked the better option when he came on. He has a lot to prove for me.
 
One of the hardest games of the season.

I thought he was really good all things considered.
 
Thought he was really quite good in everything he did. One some crucial tackles in the first half and intercepted a few things. Showed his qualities for me.
 
i must have watched a different game, The amount of times he gave the ball away and just lobbed it forward
 
El-Manos said:
Was very good first 20-30 min. Probably the only decent player
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Weirdly I really didn’t like his first 20 mins. There was an early sniff for pool when he dropped too deep, then another a few minutes later when he got caught in two minds over who to mark and ended up in no man’s land. I thought he looked much better afterwards though and did some tidy stuff.
 
Pronewbie said:
Did great overall but this is the 2nd goal (after Brighton) where he's been sucked into the near post for no fecking reason. I actually think Maguire would have defended that 1st goal better.
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I mean he can’t just leave the attacker next to him? If he gambles back post and salah slides it across to whoever it is people would be asking wtf is he doing.
 
Pronewbie said:
Did great overall but this is the 2nd goal (after Brighton) where he's been sucked into the near post for no fecking reason. I actually think Maguire would have defended that 1st goal better.
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Because Maguire proved his worth with the first Brighton goal. Great defensive work there
 
Thought he started really well then the United jinx kicked in. Same with Maz.
 
Baneofthegame said:
I mean he can’t just leave the attacker next to him? If he gambles back post and salah slides it across to whoever it is people would be asking wtf is he doing.
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I haven't watched the match recap but my impression live was that Martinez had it covered and considering no teammate was behind him, there was no reason for De Ligt to rush into a 2v1 at the near post especially with other Liverpool forwards taking up those spaces.

As another poster replied to me earlier, de Ligt didn't even turn his head once to check the overall play.
 
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