Man United signing who ‘doesn’t know the game’ singled out by Arsenal legend Martin Keown

Premier League title winner Martin Keown has brutally laid bare a major flaw he has spotted in Matthijs de Ligt’s game.

The Dutch centre back joined Manchester United from Bayern Munich this summer for a fee of £43million including add-ons having also enjoyed a stint in Serie A with Juventus.

De Ligt was reunited with Ten Hag after the pair worked together at Ajax during their sensational run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2019.

The defender has since struggled to recapture the form that saw Juventus pay Ajax £63m for his services and despite opening his account for United against Southampton last month, De Ligt has failed to help plug the leaks in Ten Hag’s backline.

Ex-Arsenal invincible Keown has early reservations about the Netherlands international and believes he would benefit by Ten Hag adding an extra body alongside him and partner Lisandro Martinez ahead of Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa.

“De Ligt has come in, £200million has been spent on this player in transfer fees over the course of his career, it’s quite remarkable,” Kewon told talkSPORT.

“He’s been at Juventus, he’s been at Bayern and Manchester United are the next club.

“He’s a great athlete but he doesn’t really know the game,” he added. “He doesn’t know where to be. He doesn’t read the game well enough.

“You could say, put him as a marker, put him in a [back] three with Martinez. Put him there, two rottweilers, and put [Harry] Maguire in the middle and create a bit of solidity going to Villa Park.

“But I don’t know if the manager’s really got it in his locker to want to play that way.”

Meanwhile, the United boss has drawn criticism for hauling in-form forward Marcus Rashford off at half time in his side’s 3-3 draw at FC Porto on Thursday.

Rashford opened the scoring for at the Estadio Do Dragao before providing an assist for Rasmus Hojlund. Despite looking threatening, the 26-year-old bizarrely failed to appear for the second half.

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“We have to rotate,” Ten Hag explained after the game. “[Alejandro] Garnacho, we didn’t start him, but he had a great game not only Sunday but the whole season.

“We go quickly with a turnaround to Villa and they have had a day longer to recover and we have an away game.”

Asked whether he could understand Ten Hag’s approach, talkSPORT’s chief football correspondent Alex Crook said: “Not at all. I can’t understand the way that he’s handled Marcus Rashford.

“After the Liverpool game, I put it to Ten Hag about whether it was the right thing to persist with Marcus Rashford. He hadn’t scored since March and hadn’t had a single shot on target in the Premier League.

“He [Ten Hag] said he will ‘come good’ and he did come good.

He [Rashford] scored three goals in two games and then he dropped him, having persisted with him when he wasn’t scoring.

“Then (against Porto) he makes a significant contribution in the first half by way of a goal and assist and he takes him off at half time.”