Matthijs de Ligt has finished his first season as a Manchester United player after making the £39m move from Bayern Munich last season.
Despite collectively the team having a dreadful campaign, De Ligt was pleased with his contribution due to his performances and number of games he played. Speaking with the club’s official site, he reflected on the season.
I think I’m quite satisfied. First of all, because I played [over] 40 matches. Now I’m injured, unfortunately, but I have been fit for most of the season, compared to my last at Bayern, which was different. So, with that, I’m really happy. I think I contributed also in a way that could be happy with.
Obviously, every time, it should be better and, every day, I’m training as hard as possible to get better and to help the team even more. But I believe that you can do only as much as you can do, so with that, I’m satisfied and hopefully, as I said, we can grow even more as a team and as a group to becoming even better next season.
With a change of manager midway through the season, De Ligt is now part of a three-man defence under Ruben Amorim, which is something he relishes.
For me, personally, obviously going from a two-man defence centre-back to a three-man defence. That’s obviously a change. So yeh, you change the way you play. The positions look the same but they are still quite different. So, yeh, it’s really interesting for me to get this for the first time in my career: a coach who plays this system all the time. I think you more you play in it, the more you get used to it. I can also say that, in this system, I have grown a lot as a player, so I am really happy for that.
I think I can adapt quick to systems, from what way I have to play, so it was quite okay. Obviously, with the team, in the beginning, it was a little bit different, because we still had to get used to the system, the way we play.
So, personally, I felt quite comfortable, soon after we implemented the system but, as a team, obviously we had to grow to get into the system and to become better as a team. I’ve played this system before, it’s just not that I’ve played it every week. Sometimes, certain games we played with five in the back. With the national team [the Netherlands], for example, we played a tournament with five in the back. That’s what I like. I’ve grown up with four in the back so, for me, it was quite different to play every week like this. But, right now, I can say that I’m used to it and there are pros and cons in every system. It’s the same with this. But, until now, I like the way I play and the way I feel in the system, so that’s good.
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