If he didn’t know it already, the events of last week is proof that life as a Manchester United player brings with it a rather unique set of obstacles.
Matthijs de Ligt, less than a month after signing his contract with the Premier League giants, was already seeing every misplaced pass, every brief lapse in concentration pulled apart and analysed through the finest of tooth combs.
Not only by the Dutch media either – following mistakes against Bosnia and Germany in the UEFA Nations League – but by the English press too.
Harry Maguire, Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba – to name but three – know what it’s like to be a Manchester United player. Standing alone amidst a never-ending swarm of zombies, constantly spawning onto the map in every teenager’s favourite PlayStation shoot-em-up.
So De Ligt, welcome to Manchester United indeed. Hope you like being glared at under a microscope twice a week.
Manchester United’s Matthijs de Ligt silences his critics
Fortunately, an imperious display at either end during Saturday’s 3-0 win at Southampton ensured the £38 million signing from Bayern Munich took control of the narrative.
Another error would have seen the pressure ramped up even further. The quickest so-called ‘flop’ in Premier League history.
Instead, De Ligt headed and tackled everything that came his way at Southampton. And that included a pinpoint cross from Bruno Fernandes which he nodded into the bottom corner to open the scoring.
Arguably the stand-out performer at St Mary’s, this was a performance which went some way to not only silencing his critics, but also explaining why the Bayern Munich fans were so devastated by his summer departure.
A petition produced via Change.Org demanding De Ligt be retained attracted over 70,000 signatures.
The obvious fan opposition did not deter Bayern from cashing in, however. And Max Eberl, the sporting CEO at the Bundesliga giants, insists that cashing in on the former Ajax captain was a necessary evil given Bayern’s need to raise funds for new additions.
What’s more, while De Ligt largely outperformed Dayot Upamecano and the much-maligned Kim Min-Jae in Germany, Eberl insists that there was a tactical reason as well as a financial one behind the 25-year-old’s departure.
“I followed it (the fan criticism), including the petition. I know that many fans identify with him,” Eberl tells Sport 1. “Nevertheless, I had to make this decision because we also had to sell players.
“We felt more comfortable with Upamecano and Kim because they can defend higher up the pitch. And then an offer came in for de Ligt.”
Bayern Munich had tactical concerns over Dutch star
Ironically, a desire to ‘defend higher up the pitch’ is something Man United boss Erik ten Hag shares with Bayern chief Vincent Kompany.
De Ligt is perhaps more of an old-school, penalty-box powerhouse in the Harry Maguire or Raphael Varane mould. But Ten Hag obviously feels that his one-time Ajax skipper can also thrive when asked to push high, even if there may be concerns over his broad frame and a relatively sluggish turning circle.
De Ligt’s towering header, plus Andre Onana’s penalty save, proved to be major turning points in that Southampton win.
United struggled to get a grip on their hosts until late in the first half but dominated from thereon in, producing one of their most fluid and threatening second-halves for a while.
“You have to win every game. We did today, and sometimes you have to find a way to win,” Ten Hag tells TNT Sports (14th September, 2.45pm). “The first minutes, we had some problems.
“After Andre stopped the penalty and the goal from Matthijs de Ligt, I think the game was all ours.”
“We know we have signed,” Ten Hag added when asked about De Ligt specifically. “A very good player with lots of attributes. One is that he is good on set plays. A very good cross from Bruno, so well done.
“(We tried to) kill the game off and I think we had the chances. I don’t know how many but we had several chances to go three or 4-0.”
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