De Ligt identifies areas of improvement
Matthijs de Ligt was pleased that Manchester United were able to get over the line to beat Burnley, but the defender has highlighted areas where the Reds must improve moving forward.
The Reds earned a vital first win of the Premier League campaign going into the international break, as Bruno Fernandes struck from the penalty spot deep into stoppage time to seal a 3-2 success over the newly-promoted Clarets on Saturday.
However, Matthijs - who has featured in all four of our games in all competitions so far this season - has pinpointed which areas Ruben Amorim’s side must address, with tough tests against Manchester City and Chelsea to come in September.
De Ligt picks out a big positive
Matthijs de Ligt is pleased United beat Burnley, but acknowledges that there is improvement to be made...
“I think the first half was good from our side - we created a lot of big chances, I think we didn’t concede that much,” the Dutchman told MUTV.
“Overall a really stable and solid performance but obviously you keep them in the game with not scoring the 2-0 or even 3-0 - that’s something we could improve.
“But also in the second half, you felt like we dropped in energy and retention and then you see out of nowhere they could score goals and make it difficult for us.
“That’s something we definitely have to improve, but I think the fact we came after the first goal of theirs - immediately we scored 2-1 and after 2-2 we still believed to score 3-2 - I think is the biggest plus of today, but we all know that getting away [with it] like today is not every week so we really have to improve on that.”
De Ligt will now travel to link up with his international team-mates, having been named in the Netherlands squad by Ronald Koeman for their World Cup qualifiers against Poland and Lithuania.