Manchester United were disappointed after losing 2-0 to Arsenal, with set-pieces making all the difference.
While hopes were high pre-game, there was always an acceptance that Manchester United are still in the early stages of a project, while Arsenal are in year five.
So for Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 system to only be undone defensively by the Gunners’ freakish corner ability, is a testament to the work our head coach has done so far.
However, ultimately United losing 2-0 to Arsenal will be a bitter pill to swallow for some – with Matthijs de Ligt among those far from pleased with his and the team’s result.
On a night when De Ligt was very solid, as usual for United, he was picked for post-game media duty on MUTV. With the Dutchman far from pleased.
Matthijs de Ligt has perfect reaction to 2-0 loss
Following the game, De Ligt was interviewed live on MUTV and he looked utterly dejected to have lost.
“At the moment, it is still really tough, because you lose and nobody wants to lose. So the feeling is really disappointed. Overall very disappointed with the zero points”, the Dutchman told the interviewer disappointingly.
“At the end of the day we are Manchester United we lost again, it’s not good enough”, United’s No.4 then concluded.
In saying this, De Ligt is absolutely spot on and his words resonate with what it takes to be a Manchester United player.
Since joining, De Ligt has won the respect of United fans, proving himself to be a real warrior in defence and a natural-born leader as well – exactly what the club needed more of.
De Ligt shares thoughts on Manchester United performance vs Arsenal
Despite being clearly dismayed at the result, United’s centre-back found positives in the game as he praised the way his teammates defended.
“There were some positives, in the defensive phase, the amount of chances we conceded without set-pieces. In general, we were quite good there.”
However, De Ligt highlighted the problems offensively as one area to improve.
“But offensively we must improve, although it is all about the automatisms, to know what everybody is doing.
“We are on the road to improving as a team, the head coach said it, that we could have a better chance of results by playing another way but in the future, we would not improve.
“This is the way we are going, it’s not perfect, we have to improve and everybody needs to learn.”
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