Matthijs de Ligt has played for Ajax, Bayern Munich and Juventus but he feels the pressure at Manchester United is bigger and it can be difficult for young players to handle.

United completed the signing of De Ligt for €45million (£38.4m), with a potential further €5m (£4.2m) in add-ons, in August and the defender has faced scrutiny in his first season.

De Ligt has delivered some strong performances but there have also been some unconvincing moments. Nonetheless, the 25-year-old is enjoying the challenge of representing United and he's continued to be a first choice centre-back following the appointment of Ruben Amorim.

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"It’s a really big club, an amazing club," said De Ligt. "It’s a lot of pressure, I have to say. I’ve played for several big clubs and the pressure is always high. But the feeling you get here is that the pressure is maybe worldwide – the most I’ve experienced so far. It’s not easy to handle that – particularly for young players.

"I’ve had some experience in other clubs so maybe in that sense it could be a little bit easier for me but I imagine that for other players it might be a little more difficult. But that’s why it’s so important we get the crowd behind us – to get the confidence into the players and from that you can win games.

"I love the way English people see football – I love the way they see defending. Tough and aggressive. Still controlled – because obviously you can’t be too erratic. I try to be as good as possible and I feel like every game I’m improving. Hopefully the team can improve too – a lot more."

De Ligt was speaking after the win against Southampton and said: "Yeah I feel really good and today I felt I played a solid game. I feel really confident and fit. That’s something that comes at some point.

"The more games I play, the more fit I will become I just try to be my best and help the trainer and the team as much as possible. That way when you get results its really nice."

United were awful for most of the game against Southampton but Amad turned the game on its head in the final 10 minutes. "Relief," said De Ligt when he was asked how he felt.

"I think because obviously even if you’re 2-1 up – you still have to be concentrating. So you celebrate but you still know you have to focus. Then it went 3-1 and that’s obviously a big relief. So from the place we came from today 1-0 down with eight minutes to go – getting to 3-1 is really important.

"Obviously in the first half we had some problems – we know how they play and they were really strong in the duals – we couldn’t win them. In the second half you saw that especially in the last 10 minutes they became a bit more tired – so we stuck to the plan and made it difficult for them. Obviously Amad’s hat-trick was important but as a team we kept pushing to the end.

"You saw in the last 10 minutes, they [fans] stayed right behind us and gave us more energy – this is what we need. We have a really young team who can either get a lot of energy from it – or maybe lose some confidence – especially in the moments when it’s not going so well.

"We needed that from the crowd and I was happy we got that in the end. You can’t question the belief of the team. It was important for us to stay in the game because they have a certain way of playing, one against one on the whole pitch.

"If you play against that several times, you know they will be lacking energy and stamina so you have to kill them in a certain way. That’s what happened and we kept believing in the possibility to win."

Amorim said he would learn more about his players against Southampton then he did against Liverpool and Arsenal. So what did he learn on Thursday night at Old Trafford?

"That we have a lot to improve – especially in the build up phase. But he will have also learned that even against the teams at the bottom we can still put up a fight," explained De Ligt.

"We have the mentality and that’s the biggest improvement that we have right now. We are fighting for each other, you see we are fighting on the pitch for every metre.

"I think that is the base for becoming a great team – step by step. I think we have to improve in other aspects but the fact we are doing this now is already a big win."