{"id":642376,"date":"2024-06-29T14:36:31","date_gmt":"2024-06-29T18:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=642376"},"modified":"2024-06-29T14:38:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-29T18:38:11","slug":"manchester-united-transfer-rumours-matthijs-de-ligt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/06\/29\/manchester-united-transfer-rumours-matthijs-de-ligt\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United Receive Boost With \u00a3263k P\/W International Defender \u2018Open to Joining\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1807087347789353051\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Fabrizio Romano<\/a>, Manchester United have made contact with the representatives of Matthijs de Ligt, with the Dutch defender reportedly &#8220;open to joining United.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2>Matthijs de Ligt \u2018Open to Joining\u2019 Manchester United<\/h2>\n<h3>Manchester United Aim to Strengthen Defence<\/h3>\n<p>The centre of defence seems to be an area that the Manchester giants are keen to strengthen with the update from Romano mentioning Jarrad Branthwaite as another option for the Red Devils. This will be music to the ears of United fans that a player of De Ligt&#8217;s stature is open to joining the club even without Champions League football.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/06\/28\/matthijs-de-ligt-transfer-demands\/\" target=\"_self\">Man Utd Told Formidable Asking Price for Ace Defender \u2018Erik Ten Hag Would Like to Bring\u2019 In<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It also appears that Bayern Munich could sell De Ligt, who is on <a href=\"https:\/\/salarysport.com\/football\/player\/matthijs-de-ligt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u00a3263,000<\/a> per week this summer &#8211; which could accelerate Erik ten Hag&#8217;s interest in a player he managed at Ajax.<\/p>\n<h3>Defensive Struggles<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Manchester United struggled with injuries last season, which seemed to affect the club and their defensive set-up, with the injury to <\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/inside-lisandro-martinezs-injury-hit-28934001\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Lisandro Martinez<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> arguably the most important one. His return towards the end of the season brought a marked improvement to the Red Devils&#8217; defensive stability.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/06\/28\/manchester-united-erik-ten-hag-coaching-staff-additions\/\" target=\"_self\">\u2018Club Confident\u2019: Man Utd Ready to Give Erik Ten Hag Big Boost With Two Major Appointments<\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">With the departure of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/soccer\/story\/_\/id\/40144063\/raphael-varane-leave-man-united-end-season#\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Rapha\u00ebl Varane<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> confirmed, and the performance struggles of others, it appears new players will seemingly be arriving to strengthen their defence with the club linked with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/FabrizioRomano\/status\/1803454345763033236?t=jh-lgwpD55K2nW3mbRii5w&amp;s=33\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Jean-Clair Todibo<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, who seems unable to move to Old Trafford due to Nice and Manchester United having the same owners.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Matthijs de Ligt Playing Style<\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The Dutchman would bring a presence to the Old Trafford back line and some stability to a defence that has struggled to attain consistency in terms of personnel and performance. He is strong when contesting aerial duels and is <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">difficult<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> to pass, as he times his tackles well. He is comfortable on the ball and would be a <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">useful<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> outlet for Andre Onana. There<\/span><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8216;<\/span><\/strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">s no doubt Ten Hag needs to strengthen in defence, and De Ligt would be a great buy with plenty of experience at a high level.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>According to Fabrizio Romano, Manchester United have made contact with the representatives of Matthijs de Ligt, with the Dutch defender reportedly &#8220;open to joining United.&#8221; Matthijs de Ligt \u2018Open to Joining\u2019 Manchester United Manchester United Aim to Strengthen Defence The centre of defence seems to be an area that the Manchester giants are keen to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4106,"featured_media":640195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1364,18,3,7188],"tags":[7380,1988],"class_list":["post-642376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bundesliga","category-bayern-munich","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","category-rumours","tag-manchester-united-transfer-rumours","tag-matthijs-de-ligt"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=642376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/642376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=642376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=642376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=642376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}