Arsenal legend Martin Keown has criticised Man Utd for spending an “obscene” amount of money on a “robot” in central defence.
The Red Devils are having a terrible season with their 1-0 loss to Tottenham seeing Spurs leapfrog Ruben Amorim’s side in the Premier League table with Man Utd dropping to 15th.
They are 12 points above the relegation zone and 15 points adrift of fourth-placed Man City, who occupy the final Champions League qualification spot.
Amorim has struggled to improve results and performances since taking over from Erik ten Hag in November with the Portuguese head coach sticking to his principles.
Only four sides have scored fewer goals than Man Utd this season in the Premier League with Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee taking their fair share of criticism.
Man Utd have only kept two clean sheets in Amorim’s first 14 Premier League matches with Keown pointing the finger at Red Devils centre-back De Ligt.
Keown said on talkSPORT: “I look at De Ligt, the amount of money they spent on him by the way is almost obscene for a centre-half.
“He’s playing like a robot. There’s times he can clear the ball and he puts it out for a corner. He just creates issues for the team.
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“Ruben Amorim needs to empower him with confidence, I’m not seeing any of that with him.”
Reacting to Man Utd losing 1-0 against Tottenham over the weekend, De Ligt said: “If you lose it’s never enough. We can speak about the personal problems, the injuries, but Tottenham have the same problems. If you lose, it is never enough.
“We played OK and created some chances. But if you lose 1-0, you didn’t score and conceded one, so we needed to improve at both ends.
“I think the urgency, the hunger to score, that is something that may be lacking. That’s not only on the attackers, it’s also on the midfield and the defenders. It’s a team thing and we definitely need to improve.”
De Ligt hinted at a lack of confidence among the Man Utd team currently, he added: “I think you can say [it] has taken a real hit. Especially in the Premier League, if you lose the confidence you lose the game.
“We still had a starting XI with first-team players. It’s no excuse. It’s not nice when you lose five players in one week, but that’s part of football, part of life.
“I believe you have to deserve fortune. At the moment, apparently we don’t deserve it. I don’t believe in fortune coming out of nowhere.”
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