The new season hasn’t started auspiciously for Matthijs de Ligt.
Manchester United’s new central defensive signing is already under the spotlight.
Some fingers were pointed towards the former Bayern Munich man after United conceded a poor last minute goal against Brighton.
But that’s nothing compared to the criticism he has faced for his country.
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Netherlands have played two games in the UEFA Nations League this week and de Ligt has been at fault for goals in both games.
On Saturday, the Netherlands beat Bosnia and Herzegovina 5-2 but de Ligt was at fault for Bosnia’s second goal.
He was unable to deal with a cross, that he maybe should have cut out, leaving former Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko with a simple tap in.
That error wasn’t quite disastrous as the Netherlands romped to victory.
But yesterday’s game against Germany was a different matter altogether.
Having dominated the opening exchanges, the Netherlands looked like they’d sweep Germany out of their way.
However, de Ligt gave the ball away on the edge of his own 18-yard box and then led to Denis Undav equalising for the Germans.
From there, the game changed and Germany took the lead in first half stoppage time when Joshua Kimmich made it 2-1 from close range.
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Fortunately for the Netherlands, Denzel Dumfries scored a second half equaliser, meaning both teams ended up with a point.
But the main talking point became Matthijs de Ligt.
The former Ajax captain was substituted by manager Ronald Koeman – meaning that the Netherlands second half recovery was done without the Manchester United defender.
This was despite losing Nathan Ake to an injury in the first half.
You would have thought Koeman would have wanted one of his senior defenders on the pitch having lost another.
But the former Barcelona and Everton manager decided otherwise.
And, this morning, the Dutch media have responded to de Ligt’s display.
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VoetbalPrimeur post-game match ratings rated Matthijs de Ligt at 5/10, the lowest on the pitch. In a stark similarity to what Dutch fans were commented on social media, the website wrote: “It was him again.
“De Ligt simply handed the ball in and led to the 1-1.
“A painful moment for the man-marker, who remained in the dressing room at half-time.
“These mistakes continue to haunt him.”
De Volskrant went further, stating that de Ligt’s “incomprehensible mistakes” mean that the United man is “no longer such a great defender”.
De Telegraaf, one of largest papers in the Netherlands, made a more subtle dig at de Ligt when stating that “most of Germany’s danger came from personal mistakes by the Dutch, where clumsy loss of possession provided the biggest chances”.
Newspaper Algemeen Dagblad labelled the defender “clumsy” and went on to say that de Ligt hasn’t shown the form that made him a great defender once.
Finally, Sky Germany stated that Matthijs de Ligt has now “dropped considerably” in the pecking order for the national team.
With international duty over, de Ligt will be hoping to return to Carrington and put these nightmare performances behind him.
United fans will be hoping that there’s no hangover for the central defender and will be praying that there’s no similar mistakes against Southampton on Saturday morning.
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