Jamie Carragher singles out Man Utd star for his role in Man Utd’s latest thrashing
Jamie Carragher blasted Matthijs de Ligt for his role in Manchester United’s embarrassing thrashing at the hands of Tottenham.
De Ligt was signed from Bayern Munich in the summer with high hopes he could help to firm up the Red Devils’ backline. Those hopes have quickly suffered a knock though, with De Ligt part of a defence which has conceded six goals in their last two home games in the Premier League.
Sunday’s defeat to Spurs was particularly concerning, with Ange Postecoglou’s men having also endured a mixed start to the campaign. But the visitors were ahead after just 155 seconds when Micky van de Ven charged forward from his position in central defence and set Brennan Johnson up for a tap-in.
While Gary Neville blasted Marcus Rashford for his role in that opening goal, Carragher instead took aim at De Ligt. He insisted the Dutch international was consistently out of position, which caused United numerous problems.
I’ve noticed this with De Ligt and a lot of centre-backs, I don’t understand why they don’t fill the space and come over. The striker just behind him has got nothing to do with him, that is Martinez’s job,” Carragher told Sky Sports.
“If De Ligt goes over, Martinez comes across. He looks over his shoulder here, forget that! Forget it. Get here [the space Van de Ven runs into]. This is a brilliant run, amazing. But Van de Ven runs because he sees the space.
post, we see him with his hand up. Again I want to go to De Ligt. This sums Manchester United up over the last two or three years. Pressing and always being late.
“They’re locked in here, you’ve got the front three of Tottenham locking in the back four and you have him here free. There’s two men on one player. De Ligt should already be over. We run it on and just look at De Ligt flying across, flying into the challenge.
