Matthijs de Ligt opens up on what Manchester United must do to bounce back to winning ways
The journey back to the top is a long and arduous one, especially when the club has been drifting for the last decade, but progress is visible now.
The Glazers needed to hand over the control of footballing operations to Ineos for that to happen, but even from just the first summer window, the signs are clear.
The project under the new ownership is attracting world-class players and perhaps no other signing this summer personifies that tag more than Matthijs de Ligt.
The Dutchman is a player who strives for perfection and demands the same from his teammates as he has seen success everywhere he’s been.
He has now revealed the roadmap and what the Manchester United squad must do for the club to return to the top.
Matthijs de Ligt lays out success roadmap
There aren’t many players in world football who, at just 25, have won multiple league titles in multiple countries.
Therefore, De Ligt, even though he is a newcomer at Old Trafford, should hold more than enough gravitas to talk about what it means to have success.
In fact, he comes in as immediately one of the most decorated members of the squad so the roadmap he lays out to achieve success is well worth paying heed to for his teammates.
In an interview with Optus Sport, De Ligt has explained what must happen at Manchester United and how he sees the ceiling of the club as it currently stands.
He said: “We want to get United back where it belongs, and that’s the top of the Premier League. If you go from here [gestures lower step] to here [gestures higher step], you have to do it step by step.
“I feel already we’re making good steps also from what I’ve heard at the club, everybody is really excited, motivated, and hungry.
“I think if we can make every training session a session where we feel like, ‘Okay, today we became a better team’, then I feel we have a squad that can go really far in every competition we compete in.”
De Ligt’s ‘Marginal gains’ and the importance of every day
De Ligt’s message about treating every training session as a chance to become better might seem obvious, but it is something United have struggled with.
Throughout the past decade, it feels like United have made a habit of being a team of ‘moments’, where they pull a result out of the hat when nobody expects them to but instantly deflate all that momentum by following it with a poor performance and result.
This pattern shows clearly that a fully motivated and locked-in squad is capable of going places, but the drive to go 100% every day is just not there.
It was on full display recently too, when the encouraging Fulham result was followed by a loss away at Brighton.
As weird as it might sound, United fans won’t be the least bit surprised now if this team goes on to beat Liverpool at Old Trafford because they lost to Brighton and are reeling.
The see-sawing in form needs to stop and while every club will have bad days here and there, striving for perfection instead of settling for average needs to become a culture at the club and players like De Ligt can help drive that change.
Manchester United’s center-back Leny Yoro is in a battle to regain fitness by the Christmas period following a recent foot surgery, according to Manchester Evening News.
The French defender sustained the injury during United’s preseason match against Arsenal in the United States, dashing his hopes of being fit for the start of the new season.
Yoro underwent surgery three weeks ago and has since been dedicated to his rehabilitation. Over the recent bank holiday weekend, Yoro shared a hopeful update with fans by posting a sand timer emoji alongside a picture of him walking out of a tunnel in his Manchester United kit.
This gesture sparked optimism among supporters that his return to action might be sooner than expected. However, injury expert Ben Dinnery has advised caution, warning that Yoro’s recovery timeline could still be uncertain.
“It is difficult to put a concrete return date in because obviously they do vary depending on the individual and of course other factors,” Dinnery told MEN Sport. “Typically, we are looking in the region of about 80-90 days to return to playing.”
Dinnery added that while some players have returned within that timeframe, others have taken longer.
“That could potentially be expedited, we have had players return within that 80-day period, but it has on occasions extended way beyond that,” he explained.
“It really comes down to the individual and Ten Hag will be looking at other factors that will influence [his return].”
Yoro’s potential early return would be a welcome boost for Manchester United, who have been relying on a center-back partnership of Harry Maguire and Lisandro Martinez in his absence.
With Matthijs de Ligt also pushing for a starting spot, the competition for places is heating up as the team prepares for their upcoming clash against Liverpool at Old Trafford.
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