Matthijs de Ligt is currently away with the Netherlands national team and when he returns to club football he’s going to be working for a new manager.
Rúben Amorim is using the international break to get his feet under the table at Carrington, and De Ligt has inevitably been asked about Erik ten Hag being shown the exit at Manchester United.
He sounds genuinely upset for his compatriot and clearly feels things didn’t favour Ten Hag in the past few weeks, with even bad luck being a factor in the manager’s exit.
Specifically regarding the penalty given against him during the match against West Ham, De Telegraaf quote De Ligt as saying: “Normally I am always self-critical and I can get annoyed about things that I do not do well. But here I could not do anything about it, I could not blame myself for it. The referee committee also called us to say that it was not a penalty.”
De Ligt had previously worked with Ten Hag at Ajax, and it was clear that played some part in the defender arriving at Manchester United in the summer.
Specifically on Ten Hag’s exit, De Ligt said: “He brought me to Manchester, the goal was to achieve success together with Erik. He has not been very lucky. We played well in many matches, but we did not use the chances we got. It is a shame that it has to end like this.”
The defender has spoken to Ten Hag since the latter’s exit, and touched upon that briefly: “A dismissal can always be quite hard. We discussed some things.”
Asked about Amorim arriving at the club, it was time for De Ligt to look towards the future and he did so to some extent: “He did well at Sporting, hopefully he can also take us to the next level. Amorim is not my first coach and he will not be my last coach. I did not only move to Manchester United for Ten Hag. It is still one of the biggest clubs in the world, I think. I just have to do my own thing and play well myself. I feel really fit now and things are going well. Hopefully I can continue that.”
