Matthijs De Ligt: Pundits too quick to write Man United defender off – Weekly Takeaway

Graeme Souness told us that ‘he’s a lightweight centre-half’, Paul Merson pondered about whether he would be ‘another signing where we question why Manchester United got him’, and Ronald Koeman hooked him off at half-time during the international break ‘to protect him.’

Pundits have been questioning Matthijs de Ligt’s ability since signing for Manchester United, but were they too quick to make a judgement on the former Golden Boy winner?

It has undoubtedly been a difficult week for the centre-back, but at Southampton, he showed United fans why the club spent the best part of six weeks and £38.5m to sign him.

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A monstrous display from a player getting a lot of negative publicity in the Dutch media this week after he was substituted at half-time for the Netherlands, having made a mistake leading to a goal for Germany.

De Ligt reacted by scoring a goal and producing a Player of the Match performance in a dominant 3-0 win over Southampton to get United back on track after back-to-back defeats in the league.

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The Dutchman not only opened the scoring for United after a very difficult first 35 minutes but won 100% of his aerial duels, made 6 clearances and ended the game with a 92% pass accuracy. His first goal for the club came at a crucial point in the game, just two minutes after Andre Onana saved Cameron Archer’s penalty for Southampton, and just six minutes before Marcus Rashford scored to double United’s lead going into the break.

De Ligt became more and more assured as the game went on and was imperious at both ends of the pitch, winning three ground duels, making one block and one interception, whilst also having the chance to double his tally for the afternoon just before half-time.

His defensive partner, Lisandro Martinez, also put in an outstanding performance, so United players and fans will hope that the two former Ajax defenders will be able to build on this performance and clean sheet going into a difficult run of fixtures.

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It wasn’t just De Ligt who silenced his critics on Saturday afternoon, as Rashford looked back to his old self.

It is not uncommon for United players to be harshly criticised in the media, many of them for the right reasons, but were judgements made a bit too soon about a player who was the youngest player to start for the Netherlands since 1931, the youngest Ajax captain in history (at the time) and someone who has won league titles for three of the biggest sides in Europe?

Only time will tell…