Matthijs de Ligt's perfect response to Bruno Fernandes' Man United prediction

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes has made an optimistic prediction for new signing Matthijs de Ligt after he opened his account for the Reds at Southampton this weekend.

De Ligt suffered a difficult international break with the Netherlands, having made mistakes in both of their Nations League matches. There were questions about whether his performances for his country would roll into his domestic form, but that was not the case.

The former Bayern Munich man was a rock at the back alongside Lisandro Martinez as United managed to cruise to victory on the South Coast. Momentum shifted in the match on the half-hour mark as Cameron Archer's poor penalty was well saved by Andre Onana.

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Just five minutes later, De Ligt had his first for the Reds, breaking the offside trap to head the ball past the outstretched dive of Aaron Ramsdale. Marcus Rashford's curling effort before the break effectively ended the match as a contest with Southampton's confidence shot.

A red card for Jack Stephens with ten minutes remaining summed up their afternoon before Alejandro Garnacho added gloss to the scoreline with a brilliant finish in added time. After the match, Fernandes took to Instagram to offer up a prediction for De Ligt's future career at Old Trafford.

"First of many Matthijs de Ligt," he wrote while sharing a picture of the two teammates celebrating at St Mary's Stadium. De Ligt responded with a love heart emoji, which is perhaps the perfect response considering the centre-back is unlikely to be judged by how many goals he clocks up over the course of the season.

United return to action on Tuesday night as they host League