Matthijs de Ligt has confirmed that the pressure at Manchester United is the highest he has ever felt in his career, and currently it is “a lot more negative than positive.”
Speaking to Dion Dublin on Football Focus, the Dutchman spoke about his career so far, which has already seen him play for some of the biggest clubs in Europe.
He said: “Man United fit really well with the clubs I have been at already. Ajax, Juventus, Bayern Munich, Manchester United, they are all the same bracket.”
The fact that he has played for all these top sides and is still only 25 years old was cited by some pundits as a cause for concern rather than an indication of his quality, but the defender says he is used to such kinds of pressure.
“At every club that I have played, the pressure has been really high,” he said. “To be fair at United, it is perhaps the highest it has been especially because United is still, and historically, the biggest club in England.”
De Ligt was part of a raft of signings delivered to former manager Erik ten Hag by INEOS in their first transfer window in charge of football matters at Old Trafford.
But the feel-good factor quickly dissipated as Ten Hag’s tough start to the season saw him get sacked and was replaced by Ruben Amorim, who himself is having a rough ride.
De Ligt said: “The way we have performed this year, we know, has not been good enough so what happens then is that the pressure becomes bigger and bigger and bigger so you feel it more.
“It is a lot more negative than positive and you can feel it as a player.”
The Netherlands international has long been linked with United, as far back as his breakout season at Ajax, but says he is glad he took the scenic route to arrive at Old Trafford.
“The only thing that I am happy about is that I didn’t make the step from Ajax to here because maybe it would have been too much. It is similar to when I was in Italy in those first three months, I could not make a mistake because I was signed for £75m.”
United forked out £43 million to sign De Ligt from Bayern Munich in the summer, and before a ball had been kicked questions were posed as to whether he was good enough to play for the Red Devils.
“I learned from failure and disappointment to deal with critics and I think that helped me a lot in this situation,” he said.
De Ligt is a firm fixture in Amorim’s starting XI and has been one of United’s more consistent performers of late, especially in their staunch defensive display which secured victory at Arsenal in the FA Cup.
Feature image Michael Regan via Getty Images
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Joe Ponting
Joe has spent more than half his life writing about football and all of it following United. As a child he told a doctor his name was ‘Paul Scholes’, but could never pick a pass like him no matter how much he tried.
