Matthijs de Ligt image 4

Matthijs de Ligt Netherlands flag

2024-25 Performances

View full 2024-25 profile

5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
33
Clean sheets
9
Goals
1
Assists
0
Yellow cards
4
pocco said:
I did say he's about average, which isn't good when you look at the CBs we have. Far off what is required. He has those issues I mentioned, I notice them in games, but he hasn't really been punished as of yet like he was at Juve at times, and Bayern. Probably helps to an extent being in a back 3 for that reason. I'm not declaring any of them to be great, I think they're a solid set of options and probably the least of our worries right now (apart from ball progression, which they are struggling with). But they still aren't great, and I don't think he's really any better than Maguire or Martinez, just another defender of a similar level that doesn't dominate, can be got at, has frailties, average at distribution, a bit cumbersome and slow, but is fairly steady for the rest of it.
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I think he is better than average and if I'm not mistake he was seen as Bayerns best center back, or one of them. He was trusted heavily under Tuchel.
 
pocco said:
Still our best defender. Why would we bin him when we have/had worse CBs? Lindelof, Evans, Varane (last season - rightly binned). Maguire will only be 'binned' when there is better players to take his place. He's nowhere near an issue right now, and would be decent backup in a back 3. It's not his fault we keep signing average CBs and none can really force him out.
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He should have been binned years ago. We should never have went near him, but that's a different story. As I said, Hojlund was also our best striker last season.
 
Robbie Boy said:
He should have been binned years ago. We should never have went near him, but that's a different story. As I said, Hojlund was also our best striker last season.
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I agree we shouldn’t have bought him, but he’s not the first CB that needs to go. I have barely rated him but he’s doing ok these days and that’s better than most other players we have. You don’t just bin off starters and try to replace them, you get in players that force them out of the team, down the pecking order and then you sell them. Like I said, unless somebody comes along and forces him out of the team, or he wants to leave, then he’s not going anywhere just yet.

I’d go as far as to say he’s actually probably one of the safest players in our squad right now. I don’t rate him highly or anything (see my previous post history if you are bothered, I’m not some Maguire fanboy by any means) but he’s shown a good attitude and performed reasonably well when he looked down and out, and was barely used. As somebody that has been a critic I can only take my hat off to the guy. I wish more of our more talented players showed this character. Imagine Rashford, or Sancho had that approach…we’d be a lot better off right now.
 
VP89 said:
I think he is better than average and if I'm not mistake he was seen as Bayerns best center back, or one of them. He was trusted heavily under Tuchel.
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Didn’t Tuchel drop him and MDL got the hump? Tuchel didn’t like his distribution I believe, and preferred Upamecano and Min Jae. Last season he even preferred Upamecano and Dier when he wanted to play with a higher line!

He also found himself 4th choice for Netherlands too.
 
pocco said:
I agree we shouldn’t have bought him, but he’s not the first CB that needs to go. I have barely rated him but he’s doing ok these days and that’s better than most other players we have. You don’t just bin off starters and try to replace them, you get in players that force them out of the team, down the pecking order and then you sell them. Like I said, unless somebody comes along and forces him out of the team, or he wants to leave, then he’s not going anywhere just yet.

I’d go as far as to say he’s actually probably one of the safest players in our squad right now. I don’t rate him highly or anything (see my previous post history if you are bothered, I’m not some Maguire fanboy by any means) but he’s shown a good attitude and performed reasonably well when he looked down and out, and was barely used. As somebody that has been a critic I can only take my hat off to the guy. I wish more of our more talented players showed this character. Imagine Rashford, or Sancho had that approach…we’d be a lot better off right now.
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I wasn't strictly speaking about the here-and-now; I think he should have been binned years ago. The fact he's still here to have this "redemption" is ridiculous. He's consistently been part of awful defences, and he's just not good enough, and never has been. Considering what he cost, the bar for him "playing well" is very, very low.

I disagree about him playing well by the way. I think his performances have been wildly exaggerated - a good example is the Leicester game: he was awful then scores a late goal, and apparently he played great. Sometimes I feel I'm watching a different match when I login here and his 3 or 4 super fans are praising him to the hilt. This narrative that "he's been far better than MDL" is insane. Neither have been remotely impressive barring the odd game here-and-there. Yet, some nutter on here swears Maguire has been Barsei reincarnated and has been levels above MDL. I'm just not seeing this "redemption".
 
pocco said:
Didn’t Tuchel drop him and MDL got the hump? Tuchel didn’t like his distribution I believe, and preferred Upamecano and Min Jae. Last season he even preferred Upamecano and Dier when he wanted to play with a higher line!

He also found himself 4th choice for Netherlands too.
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I don't believe so? There was this myth that he was replaced by Dier and in the stats of when Dier started he had MDL as a partner in almost all the games.

The Netherlands thing is because VVD is the central striker, and De Virj covers that space between CB and wingback more naturally (though I'd argue MDL has been good at this for us, notably pocketing the winger for Southampton that had Yoro on toast).

MDL also handles attackers a lot better than Maguire for example. The latter finds himself in more compromising positions and outright fouls the shit of a player or obstructs them in a high risk situation that can often lead to a penalty.
 
Tottenham 1:0 Man Utd New
He did alright today and finally was a bit more aggressive in his defending which was good to see.
 
Robbie Boy said:
He done alright. Maguire done alright. Bur ultimately, both haven't looked anywhere near good enough.
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I need to see a bit more of him but the concerns about him being not quick enough and not having enough passing range are still present.
 
Absolutely fine today. But if we're playing 3 defenders I'd rather they were all comfortable on the ball and stepping forward with it.
 
AshRK said:
Thought he was our best defender but doesn't say much
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He was, and yes, it doesn't say much. Spurs were very blunt in attack, and yet, I had little confidence when any of their attackers ran at De Ligt/Maguire. Also, not sure why those two stood like statues for the goal.
 
AshRK said:
Thought he was our best defender but doesn't say much
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Maguire was excellent. MDL was a little more suspect positionally, partially responsible for the goal we conceded and obviously more limited in his passing. I rated Maguire as an 8 and MDL as a 7. They are definitely one of the best parts of our team currently though and very solid against most teams.
 
Doracle said:
Maguire was excellent. MDL was a little more suspect positionally, partially responsible for the goal we conceded and obviously more limited in his passing. I rated Maguire as an 8 and MDL as a 7. They are definitely one of the best parts of our team currently though and very solid against most teams.
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Maguire was "excellent"? Both were very much on par in the 6.5 range.
 
Overall he had a decent game, but he was the CB sleeping on the Onana rebound. He should know better but he has a poor habit of switching off
 
Doracle said:
Maguire was excellent. MDL was a little more suspect positionally, partially responsible for the goal we conceded and obviously more limited in his passing. I rated Maguire as an 8 and MDL as a 7. They are definitely one of the best parts of our team currently though and very solid against most teams.
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Agree
 
Thought he was decent - probably our best defender on the day, but as others have said, not saying much.

None of those 3 CBs covered themselves in glory for that goal. All 3 stood there, marking basically no one. Ball watching. Onana should have dealt with it better but what's the point of having 3 CB's when none of them are picking anyone up in particular.
 
Ish said:
Thought he was decent - probably our best defender on the day, but as others have said, not saying much.

None of those 3 CBs covered themselves in glory for that goal. All 3 stood there, marking basically no one. Ball watching. Onana should have dealt with it better but what's the point of having 3 CB's when none of them are picking anyone up in particular.
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If you freeze their goal when the initial cross is going to come in, I think we see the age old United issue of not having good enough CMs.

Case completely loses his runner, Bruno toi his credit does not.
Cross comes in to unmarked Son - not ideal but not uncommon for coaches to want Dalot to come inside to double on a central striker - he shoots, defelction falls nicely to the Spurs player, still no sign of Case. Bruno, to his credit again, leaves his man (as in he is proactive) to close down the new threat but is not fast enough. Shot comes in, decent save, really don't buy it as a GK error given the shot is good and into the corner and MDL blindsided by their runner. I would say it's a minor error from Onana if you want to be harsh, a big error from De Ligt, but it all comes from Casemiro not working hard (and he also gets skinned earlier in the sequence).
 
Doracle said:
Maguire was excellent. MDL was a little more suspect positionally, partially responsible for the goal we conceded and obviously more limited in his passing. I rated Maguire as an 8 and MDL as a 7. They are definitely one of the best parts of our team currently though and very solid against most teams.
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Saw a few occasions of Maguire being positionally muddled up and going to deep without engaging with the attacker.

Certainly don't think he had a better game than MDL
 
Doracle said:
Maguire was excellent. MDL was a little more suspect positionally, partially responsible for the goal we conceded and obviously more limited in his passing. I rated Maguire as an 8 and MDL as a 7. They are definitely one of the best parts of our team currently though and very solid against most teams.
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Excellent is a stretch. I distinctly remember a moment (around the 75th minute, iirc) when a Spurs attacker was running at him and a little maneuver from him caught 'Arry flat footed and he almost fell down as his tanker of a body couldn't turn. It was laughable.

He was okay. Our standards have really fallen if we are calling that performance excellent.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
If you freeze their goal when the initial cross is going to come in, I think we see the age old United issue of not having good enough CMs.

Case completely loses his runner, Bruno toi his credit does not.
Cross comes in to unmarked Son - not ideal but not uncommon for coaches to want Dalot to come inside to double on a central striker - he shoots, defelction falls nicely to the Spurs player, still no sign of Case. Bruno, to his credit again, leaves his man (as in he is proactive) to close down the new threat but is not fast enough. Shot comes in, decent save, really don't buy it as a GK error given the shot is good and into the corner and MDL blindsided by their runner. I would say it's a minor error from Onana if you want to be harsh, a big error from De Ligt, but it all comes from Casemiro not working hard (and he also gets skinned earlier in the sequence).
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Yeah, I think the fact that Son was unmarked was very weird in itself - as none of our 3 CB's were marking anyone - not from what i seem to recall. Maybe a symptom of not being used to this system with 3 at the back? Alas, I was also surprised at how long Casemiro stayed on the field. Guy's completely lost his ability to compete in the EPL.
 
Ish said:
Yeah, I think the fact that Son was unmarked was very weird in itself - as none of our 3 CB's were marking anyone - not from what i seem to recall. Maybe a symptom of not being used to this system with 3 at the back? Alas, I was also surprised at how long Casemiro stayed on the field. Guy's completely lost his ability to compete in the EPL.
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The FB coming inside is very common in a back 4 - you would rather the ball go out to the wider player (less chance of a goal and probably the harder cross because it is a longer) and the immediate threat is the cross into Tel. That is the classic CF line, coming into the back post and trying to come from the blindside of a CB. I guess Dalot is a FB by training so eithe rhe's done it naturally and it's against Amorim's orders or Amorim wants Maz to get a bit more support.

I don't think the back 3 do much wrong until the lack of reaction for the save though, the fact Son's shot is well cut off and they stay well spaced shows they're not morons like people seem to think, but you can't be having opponent's unmarked in your own box. It's just basic.
 
tomaldinho1 said:
The FB coming inside is very common in a back 4 - you would rather the ball go out to the wider player (less chance of a goal and probably the harder cross because it is a longer) and the immediate threat is the cross into Tel. That is the classic CF line, coming into the back post and trying to come from the blindside of a CB. I guess Dalot is a FB by training so eithe rhe's done it naturally and it's against Amorim's orders or Amorim wants Maz to get a bit more support.

I don't think the back 3 do much wrong until the lack of reaction for the save though, the fact Son's shot is well cut off and they stay well spaced shows they're not morons like people seem to think, but you can't be having opponent's unmarked in your own box. It's just basic.
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Yeah, the lack of communication between Dalot and Mazz is sort of what I'm referring to about "maybe not used to the 5 at the back system"....as we had a spare CB who could have dealt with any striker trying to come up the back post. Then obviously the reactions are all off as well.
 
Aside from his flat-footedness for the goal, I thought he looked good and defended aggressively.

I can forgive the defender for the goal as I’d argue Onana’s positioning led to him being on the stretch and ultimately gifting Maddison, but you’d think by now the spare CB would be live to the ball spilling because it happens every game.
 
Ish said:
Yeah, the lack of communication between Dalot and Mazz is sort of what I'm referring to about "maybe not used to the 5 at the back system"....as we had a spare CB who could have dealt with any striker trying to come up the back post. Then obviously the reactions are all off as well.
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I think it would have been hard given the cross came in quite quickly but yes, in an ideal world, we would have seen Dalot between Son/Tel, Maz goal side of Tel and ideally giving him a bump/blocking any momentum he could get if a ball came into him.
 
Everton 2:2 Man Utd New
His lack of ability on the ball harms us. Slows everything down.
 
He's lucky the ref didn't see the other angle on replay because he clearly pulled young shirt (even with young dive on Maguire shirt pull)
 
I've actually been a fan this season, but that was diabolical. Can't play in the same back 3 as Maguire (I'd play him over Harry, but that's not saying much.)
 
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