Virgil van Dijk comments leave Manchester United with £94m question to answer

Matthijs de Ligt on his Manchester United debut
-Credit: (Image: Getty)


Reports at the start of the summer focused on a defensive overhaul for Manchester United in the transfer window.

Raphael Varane left at the end of his deal, eventually joining Italian side Como on a free transfer while Willy Kambwala joined Villarreal on a permanent deal. The two outgoings were replaced with two new additions to the United squad.

The club won the race with Real Madrid and Liverpool for the highly-rated Leny Yoro with United paying a fee of around £52 million for the centre-back. He was joined at Old Trafford by Matthijs De Ligt who arrived from Bayern Munich for a fee of around £42 million.

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It’s the latter who has come under the spotlight over the international break. After his mistake that led to a goal for Bosnia and Herzegovina against the Netherlands over the weekend, he was given another chance in the Dutch starting XI against Germany on Tuesday night.

Unfortunately for De Ligt, another mistake led to another goal, and he was taken off at half-time. The errors prompted criticism from Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk.

“This is football. You have to learn from this,” Van Dijk told Viaplay International. “It was one moment but at the highest level you will get punished for it.”

United will be hoping that De Ligt learns quickly. An injury to Yoro in the first game of pre-season means that the Dutchman is, for now, the only new face of the defensive revolution available to Erik ten Hag.

De Ligt started his first game for United in the 3-0 defeat against Liverpool before the international break. Ten Hag now has a decision to make on whether to play a player low who will be low on confidence against Southampton at the weekend.

Lisandro Martinez is arguably United’s best central defender but has had injury worries in recent seasons. It adds an extra worry when it comes to planning defensive selections.

It seems to be a straight shootout between De Ligt and Harry Maguire for the spot beside him. Maguire’s long-term future at United has been questioned in recent months.

Jonny Evans is the other option, given that Victor Lindelof is out through injury. Evans was given a new contract, but he too has had injury worries over the last few seasons and at 36-year-old it’s less than ideal for United to have to rely on him.

Despite the spend on central defence over the summer, there is still questions to be asked over the position so far this season. Ten Hag will hope that Yoro’s return from injury will be able to answer some of those.