Ronald Koeman Talks Matthijs de Ligt Juventus Debut, Says He's in Wrong Position

Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman has defended Matthijs de Ligt after a poor first game for Juventus and said the centre-back was played out of position. 

De Ligt played his first competitive game for the Bianconeri in the 4-3 win over Napoli on Saturday, and Koeman pointed to his own less-than-ideal debut for Barcelona in 1989 when urging for him to be given time.

Per Goal's Dejan Kalinic, he said:

"I still have the newspapers of my first match at Barcelona. It was a disaster. We lost 2-0 and everybody was questioning my arrival.

"But if you asked them now about me I bet it's different. So Matthijs is 20 years old. On the television they take changing to a new club very lightly.

"But I wouldn't position him left in defence. I would have put [Leonardo] Bonucci there. He is more experienced."

Koeman added that De Ligt "didn't play the way we want to see" against the Partenopei and revealed he has since spoken to him.

De Ligt's €75 million (£68 million) transfer from Ajax was among the most high-profile moves of the summer, with the likes of Barcelona, Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain also linked.

The 20-year-old was left on the bench for Juve's Serie A opener against Parma, but he was brought into the lineup on Saturday after Giorgio Chiellini suffered a cruciate ligament injury that will keep him out long term.

Juventus were comfortable after 62 minutes thanks to goals from Danilo, Gonzalo Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo, but a late comeback from Napoli saw Kostas Manolas, Hirving Lozano and Giovanni Di Lorenzo level proceedings.

As Bleacher Report's Alex McGovern observed, De Ligt was at fault for all three goals:

His and Juve's blushes were spared by an injury-time own goal from Kalidou Koulibaly.

Italian football writer Adam Digby and Dutch football writer Sjors van Veen echoed each other's thoughts that De Ligt should be given time to adapt:

It's clear from his time at Ajax and with the Netherlands national team that De Ligt is a player of enormous potential, and there's little doubt he'll show that in Turin once he's had the chance to settle.

Despite all he has achieved, he's still a young player, and he was thrown in at the deep end against Napoli in one of the most difficult fixtures Juve will play in Serie A all season.

As with Koeman at Barcelona—where he won La Liga four times in six years and the European Cup, among other honours—De Ligt's difficult debut will likely soon be forgotten.