Matthijs de Ligt was pleased by Manchester United’s return to winning ways as under-fire Erik ten Hag and his players blocked out the noise and stayed strong following their loss to Liverpool.
The international break has been one of scrutiny and renewed pressure after the Red Devils’ late loss at Brighton was compounded by an embarrassing loss to their rivals at Old Trafford.
But Ten Hag’s men bounced back from that 3-0 defeat with a win by the same scoreline at Southampton, where De Ligt scored his first United goal shortly after Andre Onana saved a Cameron Archer spot-kick.
Marcus Rashford and substitute Alejandro Garnacho completed the victory on an afternoon when summer signing De Ligt collected the man of the match award.
Leading from the back 💪🛡️
🏅 @MDeLigt_04 #MUFC || #SOUMUN pic.twitter.com/xhBChVyd1mAdvertisement— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 14, 2024
“A win is the most important thing, a clean sheet, so (I’m) really happy,” the centre-back said.
“It was a really important victory. Obviously today after all the stuff that was said about the club and our team after Liverpool we wanted to have a great response and I think today we did.
“You try to minimise (the outside noise) as much as possible. Obviously you hear the things, not everything, you try to minimise that also.
“But you have to stay strong, you have to be yourself and I think today we did.”
It was an important response from United as a collective and De Ligt on an individual level having endured a disappointing international break with the Netherlands.
“Obviously sometimes you have a good game, sometimes you have a bad game,” De Ligt said.
“But as long as you stay true to yourself, know what you’re doing, keep working hard then the results will come. I do that also.
“Sometimes it’s positive, sometimes it’s negative, but you have to keep going.”
Ten Hag said ahead of the trip to St Mary’s that De Ligt, who he worked with at Ajax, would be a “different player” when he got up to match fitness – comments reinforced by the player coming off.
“Yeah, it was cramp,” he said of his late withdrawal. “I haven’t played for a long time two times in a week, so that’s the reason.”
There will be plenty of opportunities for De Ligt to build fitness and rhythm considering the trip to Southampton started a hectic run of fixtures, with Barnsley next in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.
Our coaches left Manchester at 05:30 BST.
Our coaches won't be back until 20:00 BST.
A simply exceptional effort from our travelling Reds, who sang non-stop for 90 minutes 👏❤️#MUFC || #SOUMUN pic.twitter.com/AZxt9pSqpd— Manchester United (@ManUtd) September 14, 2024
“It’s going to be hard, but this is the reason why you become a footballer: to play every game as much as possible as best as possible, and hopefully we can win a lot of games,” he said.
“We want to improve as much as possible and to improve you have to play as many games as possible. Today we showed already a lot of improvement compared to the last game, so hopefully we can keep that.”
As for pointless Southampton, the main positive from their fourth loss in as many Premier League matches was the display of 18-year-old Tyler Dibling.
The talented winger impressed on his first top-flight start, earning Saints’ first half penalty and high praise from team-mate Yuki Sugawara.
First @premierleague start ✨ pic.twitter.com/2IFdUx9rnY
— Southampton FC (@SouthamptonFC) September 14, 2024
“When I saw his first session, I thought ‘he’s not 18’,” the Japan international said of his first impression of “incredible” Dibling.
“I asked ‘how old are you?’ Then he said 18. I said ‘what the f*** is that?’ He’s really crazy (talented), you know?
“But for sure he will be one of the best players in the Premier League and in the world, I think, because his mentality is so cool. Everything will be top level.
“He’s still young, he needs to learn a lot of things, but he just needs to focus on the process and what he wants to be. Then I think he’s going to be a top, top player.”
