Matthijs de Ligt image 4

Matthijs de Ligt Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances

View full 2024-25 profile

5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
22
Clean sheets
7
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
3
The overall cost of this signing was too high despite the reasonable transfer fee. We should have invested the sum in another young player. It was a complete waste of resources. He is basically a worse Maguire. And now we are struck with him for another 4 seasons because sure in hell he has done his rounds & we are the last step on that magical journey. No other club is stupid enough to take him off our hands.

It's so frustrating because the red flags on these signings are so obvious for even the casual observers, but somehow the club, supposedly run by professionals, keeps investing in players like him & Mount on super high wages.
 
Rojofiam said:
I really like de Ligt's mental profile from what I've seen so far. Interviews, training footage, behavior on the pitch, etc.

But at this point in time I don't see how Maguire isn't a clear upgrade on him. Progressive passes, passing range, circulating possession, carrying the ball, aerial dominance, de Ligt is just not on his level.
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I was expecting far more defensively from MdL for sure. But he’s not even close to the level of a washed Varane in terms of pure defending
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
I was expecting far more defensively from MdL for sure. But he’s not even close to the level of a washed Varane in terms of pure defending
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I really want him to work out at United as Maguire's long-term replacement, but like I said, he should be playing at a better base level for that already and I don't think he'll ever turn into a good progressive passer, or at one point start wining every aerial duel like Maguire does.

Maybe Maguire's going to start declining physically soon and that's why the club wanted to make use of this opportunity to get de Ligt now, but if Maguire can keep this level up for 2-3 more years, then de Ligt was arguably not needed.

However, van Dijk is 2 years older than Maguire and I feel like he's as good as ever. Also, a physical decline will hurt van Dijk's overall game and value to Liverpool much more than it would for Maguire as the latter's never been reliant on pace or excellent mobility. Thiago Silva also stayed a top level defender until the age of 40. There are examples that prove Maguire can maintain his current level for longer, especially given he's always been that slow CB type.
 
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His limitations were already well established. We wpuld have been better signing someone who was lwoer profile but had the required physical attributes and a higher ceiling
 
Valencia Shin Crosses said:
I was expecting far more defensively from MdL for sure. But he’s not even close to the level of a washed Varane in terms of pure defending
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To be fair to de Ligt, Varane got to shine with Casemiro in front of him and with most of his good defending in the box in an orthodox back four. Under ETH, he's had to play a no midfield team and under Amorim, our mistakes have been from set pieces and the mistakes in front of him. He's not really had to actually 'defend' much in terms of duels, blocks etc although it's obvious he's not some athletic monster that can shut down channels. Having said that, I thought he was poor today. In fact our whole back three was bad. Tedious, slow and ponderous on the ball.
 
Really has to improve otherwise it looks like another Ten Hag masterclass signing. Hopefully it’s just getting used to the league but his defending and physicality look suspect
 
He's mostly Maguire with more speed and probably less physicality, but more of a threat on set pieces. Unfortunately Eriksen is the only one who put in some set piece crosses that looked dangerous and hes not making the team anymore.
 
Rojofiam said:
I really want him to work out at United as Maguire's long-term replacement, but like I said, he should be playing at a better base level for that already and I don't think he'll ever turn into a good progressive passer, or at one point start wining every aerial duel like Maguire does.

Maybe Maguire's going to start declining physically soon and that's why the club wanted to make use of this opportunity to get de Ligt now, but if Maguire can keep this level up for 2-3 more years, then de Ligt was arguably not needed.

However, van Dijk is 2 years older than Maguire and I feel like he's as good as ever. Also, a physical decline will hurt van Dijk's overall game and value to Liverpool much more than it would for Maguire as the latter's never been reliant on pace or excellent mobility. Thiago Silva also stayed a top level defender until the age of 40. There are examples that prove Maguire can maintain his current level for longer, especially given he's always been that slow CB type.
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VVD has never been reliant on pace and physicality alone. He offers so much more.

He'd still be a force if he lost a yard of pace while retaining the majority of his strong attributes.

Maguire has never been a good fit at this club and I hope the same fate doesn't befall De Ligt because I find them very similar. We need better. Much better
 
CannibalSpectre said:
VVD has never been reliant on pace and physicality alone. He offers so much more.

He'd still be a force if he lost a yard of pace while retaining the majority of his strong attributes.
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VVD has lost a "yard of pace" but he's still faster than average.

If VVD for his whole career had the same speed and acceleration as Maguire he wouldn't be anywhere near the best in the world, he'd just be another slow centre back who's good at winning aerial duels.

VVD's ball playing would be worse too if he was painfully slow as the carrying, ability to create angle for passes, ability to execute passes quickly before being pressed would all diminish.
 
Why does he always get substituted? Is it a fitness issue?
 
Dominos said:
VVD has lost a "yard of pace" but he's still faster than average.

If VVD for his whole career had the same speed and acceleration as Maguire he wouldn't be anywhere near the best in the world, he'd just be another slow centre back who's good at winning aerial duels.

VVD's ball playing would be worse too if he was painfully slow as the carrying, ability to create angle for passes, ability to execute passes quickly before being pressed would all diminish.
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Well good for him he isn't 'painfully' slow in body and in thought. VVD has much better anticipation, awareness, technical and passing ability than Maguire
 
He was a more commanding player 5 years ago.

He's never really kicked on from his fantastic season at Ajax.

Hopefully he improves.
 
Rojofiam said:
I really want him to work out at United as Maguire's long-term replacement, but like I said, he should be playing at a better base level for that already and I don't think he'll ever turn into a good progressive passer, or at one point start wining every aerial duel like Maguire does.

Maybe Maguire's going to start declining physically soon and that's why the club wanted to make use of this opportunity to get de Ligt now, but if Maguire can keep this level up for 2-3 more years, then de Ligt was arguably not needed.

However, van Dijk is 2 years older than Maguire and I feel like he's as good as ever. Also, a physical decline will hurt van Dijk's overall game and value to Liverpool much more than it would for Maguire as the latter's never been reliant on pace or excellent mobility. Thiago Silva also stayed a top level defender until the age of 40. There are examples that prove Maguire can maintain his current level for longer, especially given he's always been that slow CB type.
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You are just overrating Maguire massively. If Maguire performed that good we wouldn't have gotten two defenders this season. Not saying Maguire is a bad defenders but apart from his first season, he has been average at best. He has been guilty of making silly mistakes as well. De ligt may not be a VVD but is a solid defender to have for 38m. Also, he is 25 so he can improve even further.

As for Maguire, I personally wouldn't mind keeping him for another 2 seasons provided he is happy to remain as a squad player. Let go of Lindelof and Evans and sign one more CB and keep Maguire.
 
What was he supposed to bring to the team that Maguire didn't already bring, both in terms of strengths and weaknesses?
 
I definitely overestimated his ability on the ball before he was signed. But even then he's shown that he can and is willing to make short passes between the lines and occasionally switch to the wingback.
Completely confused with his performance yesterday as he took too long and then didn't do either. So many opportunities to play to Dalot as Forest were covering the centre well. Even then, he didn't exchange enough passes with the midfielders showing for the ball. I do think Amorim will get that out of him though.
 
Rojofiam said:
However, van Dijk is 2 years older than Maguire and I feel like he's as good as ever. Also, a physical decline will hurt van Dijk's overall game and value to Liverpool much more than it would for Maguire as the latter's never been reliant on pace or excellent mobility. Thiago Silva also stayed a top level defender until the age of 40. There are examples that prove Maguire can maintain his current level for longer, especially given he's always been that slow CB type.
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Which examples? Silva & van Dijk have nothing in common with Maguire, they, just like all top center backs, are/were amazing at reading of the game first and foremost, which allows/allowed them to maintain level of performances even after losing their athletic edge. Maguire was never a smart defender. He’s not hopeless but it’s like saying that Giovinco can win the next World Cup because Messi did it.
 
He’s not the defender I thought he was. Based on the first part of the season, he doesn’t really excel at anything whether it be physicality, buildup or defending. For those wages, we should have been getting a really high quality CB.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He’s not the defender I thought he was. Based on the first part of the season, he doesn’t really excel at anything whether it be physicality, buildup or defending. For those wages, we should have been getting a really high quality CB.
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Why do you think he keeps hopping from one club to another at a loss?
 
devilish said:
Why do you think he keeps hopping from one club to another at a loss?
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I know he hadn’t lived up to his potential but for all the hype / fame he has, I thought we’d at least he getting someone with the natural attributes needed even if not the consistency or form. Hopefully he sorts himself out because we don’t need more squad player standard footballers who are paid elite wages as we have enough already.
 
CannibalSpectre said:
VVD has never been reliant on pace and physicality alone. He offers so much more.

He'd still be a force if he lost a yard of pace while retaining the majority of his strong attributes.

Maguire has never been a good fit at this club and I hope the same fate doesn't befall De Ligt because I find them very similar. We need better. Much better
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Were you tipsy when you posted this?
After his injury he took a long time to recover his physically and was pretty woeful for a while.
Guy is a unit and he’s more than able to out pace a lot of attackers, he uses his size and speed to dominate his opponents.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
I know he hadn’t lived up to his potential but for all the hype / fame he has, I thought we’d at least he getting someone with the natural attributes needed even if not the consistency or form. Hopefully he sorts himself out because we don’t need more squad player standard footballers who are paid elite wages as we have enough already.
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I followed De Ligt during his Juve times and prior to us signing him I also asked seasoned Juventus fans (40 years support, they go regularly to matches etc) about him. We all concluded that he's an OK player whose being paid far too much for his services. In purely talent terms he's a very slight upgrade on Maguire on some things (passing, positioning and speed) while a downgrade on other (air prowess and physicality). I had two concerns though

a- he's not very fast. He's faster then Maguire and Lindelof but there again I think current Rio is faster then Maguire and Lindelof which doesn't say much. That's a problem considering that we only have 1 CB whose fast
b- he's the aggressive type of CB and we've already have Martinez playing that style.

I came under huge criticism when last summer I said that this would be ETH's last lead transfer window. That wasn't a jab against INEOS but simply a realization that from a Logistics POV it had to be (Ashworth and Berrada joined in July ie too late to have a big impact on that summer window). With ETH gone, Ashworth settling down and Amorim being hired as a head coach, I really hope that there's an adult conversation in terms of transfers and how they fit into the system rather then simply sign the teacher's pet.
 
amolbhatia50k said:
He’s not the defender I thought he was. Based on the first part of the season, he doesn’t really excel at anything whether it be physicality, buildup or defending. For those wages, we should have been getting a really high quality CB.
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This was pointed out prior to us signing him and was shouted down a lot
 
I think he’s a good physical defender but his passing isn’t good enough. We really struggle to get the ball forward from the back, quickly and accurately and have done for a long time. If you look at the way Amorim played at sporting there were a lot of passes from the CBs to the 10s.
 
He made 0 progressive passes to Maguire's 6, the stat speaks for itself.
 
Idxomer said:
He made 0 progressive passes to Maguire's 6, the stat speaks for itself.
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Only if you include how many he’s attempted? I don’t know the answer but you can’t just flag some extremely specific stat without a shred of context, aren’t they also playing different roles?
 
He was okey imo. Martinez was so bad he actually fecked up on every goal. Only issue i have with de Ligt is his ineffectiveness in defending set pieces. But it also looks like a structural issue.
 
We’ve got far bigger problems than De Ligt. Don’t really get the criticism either, he’s generally been solid.

Didn’t he start the move leading to our first goal with a forward pass?
 
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Sunny Jim said:
I watch the game yesterday and i dont get the pile on. Genuine, honest what did he do wrong yesterday? :confused:
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Just people who were against buying him trying to gloat that they were right all along... still de Ligt has been our best central defender this season and been a solid purchase. He is just not the best in the world defender which he needs to be to convince the people who were against signing him or the people who still think that Harry Maguire is the answer.
 
Cloud7 said:
What was he supposed to bring to the team that Maguire didn't already bring, both in terms of strengths and weaknesses?
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Nothing. I was baffled and I still am as to why we decided to sign the Dutch Maguire to improve our defence. Just look at how he defends. He's drops deep as soon as something dangerous is starting to happen. Almost like a sweeper from the 60s. He knows he doesn't have the pace and is always on the back foot.

He'd be fine in a sit deep and park the bus formation but I thought we wanted something more.

Idiots are running the recruitment. Yet again.
 
Can someone please make a video compilation of how many times he was walking with ball trying to find a midfielder, then later passing it to a fellow defender
 
First season and all that... I'd give me this season at least.
 
He's been fairly decent/good recently, hasn't he? I thought that's generally been the consensus.

I wasn't able to watch yesterdays game but reading on here, seems he had a mare, along with Onana? Odd that it seems the sentiment has changed so much after Forest.
 
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