Matthijs de Ligt feels very good after first few months at Bayern Munich, not yet looking ahead to Champions League knockouts

Matthijs de Ligt’s time at Bayern Munich thus far seems to have been fast-tracked ever since he travelled to Washington DC to linkup with the rest of the squad on preseason duty just hours after finalizing his move from Juventus. He even featured and scored in the friendly against DC United, seemingly defying odds of jet-lag an fatigue on a humid, hot evening.

Fast forward to now, and De Ligt has been one of Julian Nagelsmann’s most important defenders in the back line alongside Dayot Upamecano and Lucas Hernandez, who now faces a long spell on the sidelines due to his ACL tear suffered in France’s opening World Cup match against Australia.

To date, De Ligt has only missed a total of four matches this season through injury, having made 18 appearances across all competitions, the majority of which were as a starter, especially in the Bundesliga. His lone goal of the season came in the form of a header in the 7-0 routing of VfL Bochum in the Hinrunde, but his defensive contributions cannot be understand.

On Christian Falk’s “Bayern Insider” podcast, De Ligt recently spoke about how he genuinely feels that he’s developed rather quickly since joining Bayern. “Very good. I think I’ve developed well at Bayern, I feel very happy. We’re playing very well. Everything is going according to plan,” he said when he was asked how he feels the season is going overall (via @iMiaSanMia).

Ironically enough, one of his best performances in a Bayern shirt thus far came in the Champions League against Barcelona (second leg), where he did an exceptional job at keeping former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski at bay. Bayern came out 3-0 winners on the night, even after they had already secured their advancement to the knockout stages of the competition.

Next up in the Champions League for Bayern is Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League, but when he was asked about that matchup, he didn’t want to get too ahead of himself before the Netherlands squared off against Argentina in the World Cup quarter-finals. “At the moment I’m not thinking about Paris saint Germain. I want to focus on the World Cup, after that I’ll go back to Bayern and think about it,” he stressed.

De Ligt also had high plaudits for 19-year old phenom Jamal Musiala, who he admits has blown him away, even knowing who he was prior to moving to Bayern from Juventus. “I heard about him and how good he was before joining Bayern, but being this good at this age is incredible. We’re happy that he plays for us,” he said.

Photo by ANP via Getty Images