Man Utd: Manager slammed over ’embarrassing’ criticism of ‘best player’ after nightmare displays

Steve Nicol thinks Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman was “embarrassing” to criticise Man Utd defender Matthijs de Ligt during the international break.

The Red Devils centre-back produced a couple of nightmarish performances on international duty, making a number of mistakes over the Netherlands’ two Nations League matches against Bosnia and Herzogovina and Germany.

De Ligt came in for criticism for three of the four goals that the Dutch conceded in their 2-2 draw against Germany and 5-2 win over Bosnia and Herzogovina .

The Man Utd centre-back was even taken off at half-time against the Germans by Koeman in order to protect him after his blunder led to Deniz Undav’s first international goal.

Koeman told reporters : “Of course I would rather have kept Matthijs de Ligt on the pitch. It just looks like he is now in a period where all his mistakes are being punished.

“I gave him a new chance today, but eventually protected him by taking him off.”

Netherlands team-mate Virgil van Dijk also commented on De Ligt’s error, he said: “This is football. You have to learn from this. It was one moment but at the highest level you will get punished for it.”

And now Liverpool legend Nicol insists Koeman’s comments were “embarrassing” with the Man Utd centre-back looking like “United’s best player” as he scored in their 3-0 win over Southampton on Saturday.

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Nicol said on ESPN : “A lot of players would have crumbled under the criticism that they got, or they would get from their international manager. I mean, it was embarrassing for any manager, never mind an international manager, to come down on a player the way he did, and the fact that he stood up, not only did he score a goal, but he defended well.

“At 0-0, he made a couple of fantastic challenges, a couple of great headers away, a couple of good blocks, and then he steps up and shows the rest of his team how it’s done, and puts the ball in the back of the net. And from there, in my opinion, he was United’s best player, and the fact that he turned around and showed exactly what he’s made of, good for him.”

When asked about his errors against Bosnia and Herzogovina, De Ligt said: “I think you know how I feel… we won… but then comes the individual part. I should have done better at their second goal, and I know that. I don’t really know what happened. I should have cleared the ball but I kept having doubts during the play. It’s just f****d.”