After three years at Juventus Turin, Matthijs de Ligt joined Bayern Munich in the summer. The central defender does not have the best memories of his time at the top Italian club.
“In a way, I was less myself at Juve,” said de Ligt in an interview with “ESPN” return.
Before moving to the Old Lady, de Ligt led his ex-club Ajax Amsterdam onto the pitch as captain and leader at the age of 19.
“Of course, if you then go to a team that has such legends in defense and in goal (Chiellini, Bonucci, Buffon, editor’s note), it might be a bit difficult for a boy of 19 at the beginning, to perform as you actually could,” explained de Ligt, who described his move to Juve as a step backwards.
De Ligt’s time at Juve was not completely disappointing. He “learned a lot from the veterans and tried to absorb things every day in order to become a better player and leader”.
Doubts had recently been expressed several times about de Ligt’s leadership qualities. “Sky” expert Dietmar Hamann called the 22-year-old a “follower”.
Ex-national player Sandro Wagner questioned Bayern’s transfer strategy. “Does it make sense to get de Ligt for 70 million if you had Niki Süle and maybe could have kept him?” He asked “DAZN”.
De Ligt struggled with Sarri-Aus
The separation from Maurizio Sarri in the summer of 2020 also led to disappointment at de Ligt. “I chose Juve with the idea of playing more attacking football because the coach was Sarri,” said the Bayern newcomer: “He has a great reputation for what he did at Napoli and Chelsea and I thought I would find a style more similar to Ajax.”
Instead, de Ligt had to play more defensively under Andrea Pirlo and Massimiliano Allegri. “At Ajax I put a lot of pressure, I took risks. At Juve it was different,” said the Dutchman, who emphasized that the pace in Italy is generally slower, which allows defenders to stay further behind.