Erik ten Hag Urged to Bench Man Utd Star for Critical Aston Villa Clash - 'He'll Need To'

Owen Hargreaves believes Erik ten Hag must drop the out-of-form Matthijs de Ligt for Manchester United's crucial match against Aston Villa on Sunday.

De Ligt endured a nightmare performance as United squandered a 2-0 lead to trail 3-2 against Porto in Thursday's Europa League tie. After Bruno Fernandes was sent off for the second time in five days, De Ligt's substitute, Harry Maguire, salvaged a late equalizer with a header.

Former United midfielder Hargreaves now feels Ten Hag has no option but to start Maguire over De Ligt for the Villa Park showdown, where another poor result could cost the manager his job.

"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."

Hargreaves' TNT Sports colleague, Karen Carney, remarked, "Manchester United completely fell apart. When it was 2-2, we were seriously concerned for them. Lisandro Martinez and Matthijs de Ligt had a particularly poor performance tonight, along with Casemiro."

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For his part, Ten Hag once again urged for patience, insisting that his United squad is still a work in progress, even as he enters his third season in charge.

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

Ten Hag also clarified that his decision to substitute goalscorer Marcus Rashford at halftime was a matter of player rotation, not due to injury.