Wes Brown names Matthijs de Ligt as the best natural defender at Man United | OneFootball

United treble winner Wes Brown says he thinks Matthijs de Ligt is the best natural defender in the current Man United squad.

The legendary Sir Alex Ferguson once described Brown as “without question the best natural defender this club has had for years.”

In an exclusive interview with The Peoples Person via Instant Casino, the former England defender was asked who he thinks the best natural defender is in Erik ten Hag’s 2024/25 first team squad.

“I would say De Ligt. Maybe Luke [Shaw],” he replied.

“People always get mixed up with that comment, I think.

“The gaffer never used to tell me what to do, he just used to ask me to do something and he knew I’d just sort of figure out how to do it, and I think that’s what he means when he says that.

“There’s a lot of coaches who coach people. I think he sort of left me alone. He’d say, ‘I need you to do that today, can you do it?’ and I’d say ‘yeah’. And then that was it.

“He used to tell me to concentrate, but that was about it! He would never tell me how to defend, he’d just send me out there, whether I was right back or centre back.

“I just loved defending. And De Ligt and Martinez are the same in that sort of area.”

De Ligt has certainly hit the ground running at United since his €45 million summer move from Bayern Munich.

His full debut was a baptism of fire, as United succumbed to a 3-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool. But since then, the Dutchman has kept two clean sheets and even scored a goal in a man-of-the-match performance against Southampton.

Given that De Ligt did not have a pre-season at all for either club or country, his start in a red shirt has been impressive, suggesting that Brown knows what he is talking about when it comes to identifying a natural defender.

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