“Too much…” – Matthijs de Ligt makes stunning admission, but Manchester United fans already knew about it

Manchester United defender Matthijs de Ligt joined the club in the summer five years after being linked to the club for the first time.

Matthijs de Ligt was one of the most promising defenders in world football during his time at Ajax and Manchester United were interested in him before he moved to Juventus in 2019.

The Dutch defender played for the Italian outfit for three years before moving to Bayern Munich. He spent two seasons at the Bundesliga giants and then transfered to United.

Not many other players have had experiences at so many big clubs at the age of 25. De Ligt has played for the biggest club in the Netherlands, Germany and England – as well as one of the largest in Italy.

That perhaps is the best preparation a player could have to come into Old Trafford, which can destroy talents who aren’t ready for the burden of playing for the club.

De Ligt’s stunning admission about United pressure

De Ligt has already experienced the difficulties that come with being a United player. The team are struggling this season and the pressure is intense.

Despite having played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe, the Dutch defender believes the pressure of being at United is bigger than anything he has experienced before.

“I think in every club that I’ve played the pressure is really high, but I think at United it’s the highest,” he told BBC Sport this week.

“The way we’ve performed this year, we know that it’s not good enough, and then the pressure gets bigger and bigger, and you feel it.”

As mentioned beforehand, De Ligt could have signed for United all the way back in 2019 when he was still a teenager. He was the captain of Ajax and appeared to have the right mentality to deal with the challenges of being at a top club.

But, stunningly, even the 25-year-old admits that he is almost glad he had experiences at other big clubs before joining United, because it may have been too much pressure for him if he came straight from Ajax.

“Yeah, you can feel it as a player. The only thing I’m happy [with] is that I didn’t make the step from Ajax to here because then maybe it would be too much,” he added.

United fans already know about pressure

You don’t really have to be an expert to tell that the pressure at this club is different to almost any in world football. Every United fan knows it and have seen players fail because of it, such as Jadon Sancho or Alexis Sanchez.

But to hear a player admit it is quite stunning. De Ligt is simply being honest and saying what we already know but you feel like the players shouldn’t be quite as aware about that.

Especially since United want to sign more players who are less proven, like De Ligt would have been back in the summer of 2019.

Leny Yoro is almost the exact same player that the Dutchman was back then. One of the most highly-rated young defenders in world football.

United must improve so much on and off the pitch, but one of the most important things is to help these players as much as possible and try to make the step to becoming a player at the club easier than it has been in the past decade.

Read More: Manchester United target makes official move, scouts have identified four alternatives for Ruben Amorim

Being a United player should always have a very clear element of pressure to perform, but amid the chaos it has slowly turned into something that is not helping anyone.

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