Erik ten Hag ordered to drop Man Utd star for crunch Aston Villa clash

Owen Hargreaves says Erik ten Hag has no choice but to drop struggling Matthijs de Ligt for Manchester United's crunch clash at Aston Villa on Sunday.

Dutchman De Ligt had a night to forget as United threw away a 2-0 lead to fall 3-2 behind to Porto in their Europa League clash on Thursday night before, with Bruno Fernandes sent off for the second time in five days, De Ligt's replacement Harry Maguire headed a late equaliser.

Ex-United midfielder Hargreaves now feels that Ten Hag has no choice but to pick Maguire over De Ligt for the trip to Villa Park, where a bad result could see him sacked following a dire start to the season.

"Harry will play at the weekend against Villa. I think he'll have to," said Hargreaves. "De Ligt struggled today, Samu (Omorodion, who scored twice for Porto) is a super explosive and powerful player, but Ollie Watkins, Jhon Duran... that's not going to get any easier. So he's got some big calls to make."

Hargreaves also took aim at United's defending as whole. "There was a lot going on," he said. "There were so many holes defensively. Manchester United didn't stop any crosses, and then to go 3-2 down after being 2-0 up was ridiculous. The middle part of the game was crazy. That's what it's been like for a couple of years."

Image: AFP via Getty Images) AFP via Getty Images)

Hargreaves' TNT Sports colleague Karen Carney added: "Manchester United fell apart. At 2-2, we were massively fearing for Manchester United. Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt were really really poor tonight and Casemiro as well."

For his part, Ten Hag again pleaded for time and insisted that his United side remain a work in progress despite this being his third season in the job.

"I don't judge us in this moment," he told TNT Sports. "I judge us at the end of the season. We are in the process. Just wait. We have to develop this team. We will work and continue. We will fight."

Ten Hag also added that his decision to substitute goalscorer Marcus Rashford at half-time was because of the need to rotate his players and not down to an injury.

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