Jamie Carragher singles out Man Utd star for his role in Man Utd's latest thrashing
Manchester Unitted fell to a miserable defeat to Tottenham on Sunday, with Jamie Carragher now pinning the blame on one of Erik ten Hag's star signings of the summer
by Jacob Leeks · The MirrorJamie Carragher blasted Matthijs de Ligt for his role in Manchester United's embarrassing thrashing at the hands of Tottenham.
De Ligt was signed from Bayern Munich in the summer with high hopes he could help to firm up the Red Devils' backline. Those hopes have quickly suffered a knock though, with De Ligt part of a defence which has conceded six goals in their last two home games in the Premier League.
Sunday's defeat to Spurs was particularly concerning, with Ange Postecoglou's men having also endured a mixed start to the campaign. But the visitors were ahead after just 155 seconds when Micky van de Ven charged forward from his position in central defence and set Brennan Johnson up for a tap-in.
While Gary Neville blasted Marcus Rashford for his role in that opening goal, Carragher instead took aim at De Ligt. He insisted the Dutch international was consistently out of position, which caused United numerous problems.
"I've noticed this with De Ligt and a lot of centre-backs, I don't understand why they don't fill the space and come over. The striker just behind him has got nothing to do with him, that is Martinez's job," Carragher told Sky Sports.
"If De Ligt goes over, Martinez comes across. He looks over his shoulder here, forget that! Forget it. Get here [the space Van de Ven runs into]. This is a brilliant run, amazing. But Van de Ven runs because he sees the space.
"Listen, the fullback gets caught out at the back post, we see him with his hand up. Again I want to go to De Ligt. This sums Manchester United up over the last two or three years. Pressing and always being late.
"They're locked in here, you've got the front three of Tottenham locking in the back four and you have him here free. There's two men on one player. De Ligt should already be over. We run it on and just look at De Ligt flying across, flying into the challenge.
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"It comes from his starting position. I can talk about United's midfield, running at the back four. But where's De Ligt? The right-back's come up and look where De Ligt is. You've got to get over. So in every situation in the first-half, De Ligt, a player they brought in for huge money, is completely out of position."
Carragher was not the only one who pinned the blame on De Ligt for United's awful defeat. Legendary Red Devils midfielder Paul Scholes also questioned the centre-back over his difficult start to life at Old Trafford.
"When you bring players in, you expect them to be a lot better than who you’ve already got. I don’t see players coming in who are a big difference. De Ligt has come in for Maguire, let’s say, but there’s no big difference there," Scholes told Premier League Productions.
"These are experienced players who United have paid a lot of money for. We need to stop hearing excuses and get on that training pitch and find a way of playing. Find something, give us something!"
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