De Ligt hailed 'leader' by fans after first Man Utd training session

Jacque Talbot

Updated: 15 Aug 2024 16:38 BST
4 min read

Manchester United defender Matthijs de Ligt has been called a 'leader' after the club posted a video of the Dutchman's first training session.

Article continues under the video

The centre-back joined the side from Bayern Munich in a deal worth approximately €45m with an additional €5m in bonuses.

The giant Dutch defender will wear the No. 4, most recently worn by Sofyan Amrabat, who was with the club on loan from Fiorentina last season.

There is a hope that De Ligt can pick up the form he enjoyed at Ajax and to a lesser extent, Juventus.

Indeed, it was at Amstedam that De Ligt arguably balled his finest football, under the stewardship of Erik ten Hag, know less. The Man Utd manager has talked up the defender regularly and his addition to the side marks the fifth former Ajax man to follow Ten Hag to Manchester.

A day after De Ligt was announced as a player, Man Utd's official account posted a video of their training session, showing De Ligt to be very vocal throughout. And this has delighted fans online, who have dubbed the 25-year-old a 'leader.'

Straight to it for our latest recruits 🫡#MUFC
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 15, 2024

De Ligt is so vocal in that training video that just got uploaded.

Proper leader.
— 𝗧𝗲𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗴’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗱𝘀 ✍🏼🇳🇱 (@TenHagBall_) August 15, 2024

Really cool video of De Ligt. His leadership and mentality have always been considered to be the traits that take him a level up, from his early days at Ajax. Definitely still there. Reviving my excitement from 5 years ago for him as a player.
— UnitedMuppetiers (@Muppetiers) August 15, 2024

De Ligt in that training video is so vocal, a true leader.
— Liam 🇾🇪 (@UTDLiam15) August 15, 2024

De Ligt's leadership

A particular criticism of Man Utd has been that they lack leadership. Lisandro Martinez offered a semblance of hope when he joined in 2022, but the centre-back missed a majority of the campaign in 2023/34,

It's something that was brought up to De Ligt when he spoke to Man Utd's in-house team following his move. One of the questions put to him was whether he was a leader in the dressing room.

"It's always really difficult to say, I think it's never to say about yourself that you have this characteristic," he replied.

"The only thing I can control is to be the best version of myself, to show others maybe what you do for the club, for yourself as a player and then yeah, maybe players are starting to take example of you but to call yourself a leader, for me, is not the right thing to say."