The Netherlands got past Senegal in their opening World Cup game on Monday, but it wasn’t the most convincing performance of all-time.
Indeed, the Dutch left it late to grab their two goals against Senegal, and at times, their defence was stretched.
One player who didn’t have the best of afternoons was Matthijs De Ligt.
The Bayern Munich defender was playing on the right side of the Dutch’s back three, and he really struggled to cope with Ismaila Sarr down the Senegal flank.
He committed four fouls, made no tackles and picked up a yellow card for his troubles.
Simply put, De Ligt was way too passive at the back, and Gary Neville highlighted his issues during ITV’s coverage at half-time.
“Worryingly the right side of that defence, De Ligt is looking like he’s really struggling to deal with that right-back position when Dumfries is going forward,” Neville said.
Now, this is interesting considering that Liverpool were keen on De Ligt over the summer.
It was thought that uniting De Ligt with his fellow countryman Virgil van Dijk would give the Reds one of the strongest backlines in the world, but as Neville’s comments show, De Ligt wouldn’t have suited Liverpool one bit.
The 23-year-old clearly needs help covering the flanks, and with Trent Alexander-Arnold bombing forward as often as he does, he wouldn’t have that level of protection that he needs.
De Ligt looked very clunky alongside van Dijk on Monday for his country, and Liverpool can probably count their lucky stars that they didn’t actually end up splashing out on this transfer when it was initially rumoured.
De Ligt is way too much of a traditional, reactive centre-back to play for a team like Liverpool where the defenders need to be proactive for the team to play to its full potential.
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