Erik ten Hag wants Matthijs de Ligt at Manchester United after Dutch CB unhappy with Bayern’s pursuit of Barcelona captain Ronald Araujo

Manchester United have suffered horribly this season due to their weird defensive vulnerability. They have already been horribly knocked out of the UEFA Champions League, finishing bottom of their group and conceding 15 goals, which was the second highest goal conceded by any team in the Champions League this season after Royal Antwerp.

Although United are still alive in the FA Cup 4th round, their chances of advancing to further rounds will be over if the club does not get in transfers of world-class defenders, which can rescue them from this dire situation. It seems like Red Devils manager Erik ten Hag has the perfect player in mind.

Erik ten Hag wants to reunite with Matthijs de Ligt

Manchester United are reportedly interested in signing Bayern Munich defender Matthijs de Ligt, who is ‘not 100 percent satisfied’ at the Allianz Arena. The Dutch centreback has fallen out of-favour after a 67 million-euro move to Bayern Munich in July 2022.

Erik ten Hag has always liked to sign players who he has already been with at Ajax during the 2018–19 season. The season during which this Ajax team, consisting of Matthijs de Ligt, Frenkie de Jong, Hakim Jiyech, Donny van de Beek, and Antony, came one minute away from reaching the final of the competition but were knocked out after Tottenham’s Lucas Moura completed his hat-trick deep into injury time in the second leg.

The Dutchman has already signed the Brazilian Antony from Amsterdam and Donny van de Beek on loan from Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt. The former Ajax manager also tried to rope in Frenkie de Jong from Barcelona but the player resisted the move to stay at the club of his dreams.

The Manchester United manager is now very keen on signing Matthijs de Ligt from the German giants Bayern due to the shaky and untrustworthy defense of his team. Despite having former Champions league winner Raphael Varane, one of the England National Team’s reserve captains, Harry Maguire and current World Cup winner Lisandro Martinez fighting for the spot at the centre of defense, the Red Devils have leaked over 47 goals in all competitions in the current season till now, which is just horrible for a team even aiming to finish in the Champions League spot.

Matthijs de Ligt unhappy with Bayern’s approach to signing Ronald Araujo

18 months into his Bundesliga career, the Dutch centre-back currently feels dissatisfied with the German champions, as reported by Plettenberg and Kerry Hau for Sky Germany. When everyone is fit, De Ligt usually finds himself out of Thomas Tuchel’s starting XI which favors the new signing Kim Min-jae and the Frenchman Dayot Upamecano as the centre-back pairing, and the club’s reported pursuit of Barcelona’s Uruguayan Ronald Araujo has also left him unsettled.

According to transfermarkt, De Ligt joined Italian giant Juventus in a deal worth €85.5 million a couple of months after Ajax’s Champions League heartbreak. Although the Dutch centre-back spent three years in Turin, where he wasn’t a massive success, De Ligt secured a €67 million move to Bayern in July 2022.

Indeed, a winter transfer move is not on the table, but United and Ten Hag are boosted by the fact that a summer move is not ruled out and De Ligt to United could become a really hot topic to watch out for in the summer should Ten Hag keep his job under the upcoming Sir Jim Radcliffe era as he is on the Dutch manager’s list.