Man Utd’s £195k Dud Nearly Cost Ten Hag His Job With ‘Weak’ Horrorshow vs Porto

The seemingly inevitable end to Erik ten Hag’s tenure at Old Trafford appears to have drawn ever closer after Manchester United threw away a two-goal lead against Porto in the Europa League. The electric Marcus Rashford and the returning Rasmus Hojlund had put the Red Devils two-nil to the good after 20 minutes as it looked as though the Premier League outfit were issuing the perfect response to their dismal display against Tottenham over the weekend.




However, goals from Pepe and a double from former Chelsea target Samu Omoriodon turned the game on its head as United ‘crumbled like a rich tea biscuit’ in the words of Karen Carney. While Harry Maguire rescued a point for the away side, it was not enough to hide what was a poor showing.

The performance summarised the club’s season, and arguably the last 12 months of the Ten Hag regime. Shambolic, unstructured and reliant on fleeting spells of brilliance that ultimately can’t undo an unbalanced system. It was hoped that the arrivals over the summer, picked in coalition with the new football operations team, would turn the tide. However, Thursday’s showing has only raised more question marks, in particular over central defender Matthijs de Ligt – whose dismal outing may well have cost his manager a job, had it not been for that late equaliser.


De Ligt Continues to Struggle Against Porto

The Dutchman didn’t cover himself in glory up against Omoriodon

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The £43m arrival of De Ligt – on a £195k-p/w contract – in the summer was arguably one of the more exciting ones to occur for United fans over the summer. The club had been linked with the 25-year-old ever since he emerged as one of the most promising young talents in European football at Ajax. Following spells at Juventus and then Bayern Munich, there were some question marks over whether he was a truly top-class defender. However, it should be noted that Bayern fans started a petition to keep him at the club when it became clear he was out the door. That’s how highly he was valued.


A first goal and solid performance against Southampton suggested that there were positive things to come for the defender. That hasn’t been the case since. De Ligt’s horror show in the defeat to Tottenham was brutally deconstructed by Jamie Carragher in the aftermath, and things didn’t get much better for the Dutch international at the Estádio do Dragão.

While not directly at fault for Porto’s first, the finger can be pointed at De Ligt for the following two goals. When United needed calmness and composure in order to halt the momentum, the defender, who was meant to bring exactly that to the team, hacked at a clearance which gifted possession back to the opposition. As a cross came in from the left-hand side, which admittedly should’ve been prevented by Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford, De Ligt failed to get tight to the clear aerial threat of Omoriodon, who bullied both man and ball as he grabbed the home side the equaliser.


Just like against Spurs, the Red Devils didn’t come out for the second half, and within five minutes of the restart, they fell behind. It was a similar story once again between Omoriodon and De Ligt, as the striker got the run on the Dutchman before smashing the ball into the back of the net.

As if things couldn’t get any worse for the Ten Hag favourite, he would be replaced with United trailing the game, only for substitute Maguire to score a late equaliser to make up for his teammates’ wrongdoings.


Journalist Josh Bunting didn’t hold back on the display for the Dutch defender, taking to social media to slam the player: “The Manchester United defending tonight has been nothing short of horrendous. De ligt so weak.”

Pressure on for De Ligt to Prove His Worth at Old Trafford

The 25-year-old will need to turn things around quickly against Aston Villa

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A second poor performance in a row has now put the pressure on De Ligt to find his top form as United travel to Villa Park in a game that could be make or break for his manager’s immediate future. The 25-year-old was seen as an improvement to several of the defenders available at the club when he joined, but has not been able to produce anywhere near the level expected of him.


Matthijs De Ligt Stats Per 90 vs Manchester United Defenders 2023/24

Stat

De Ligt

Maguire

Lindelof

Evans

Passes Attempted

77.1

59.8

59.2

53.3

Passing Accuracy %

94.03

83.39

89.5

87.89

Long Passing Accuracy %

61.54

49.32

49.06

32.08

Forward Passes

22

23.5

18.1

18

Take-On Success %

100

0

100

66.67

Ground Duel Success %

59.52

50

42.86

55.71

Ball Recoveries

4.8

4.3

5.1

4.6

While TNT Sports pundit Owen Hargreaves said that he doesn’t expect De Ligt to start against Aston Villa at the weekend, saying: “Harry will play on the weekend against Villa – he’ll have to. De Ligt has struggled really badly today.”


Even so, the likelihood is Ten Hag will stick with the same back four as he has persisted with in recent weeks. If so, then De Ligt will have to show the elite mentality he was credited with having in order to rise to the occasion against the red-hot Ollie Watkins and Jhon Duran.

All statistics courtesy of Sofascore – accurate as of 03/10/2024

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