Matthijs de Ligt appears to be feeling the burden of his enormous price tag.The Dutch defender was snapped up by Juventus this summer for a fee close to £70m after his stunning performances for Ajax.De Ligt was one of the best centre-backs in world football during 2018/19, captaining Ajax on their memorable run to the Champions League semi-final.However, since he swapped the red and white of the Dutch champions for the famous black and white of the Bianconeri, mistakes have creeped into his game on an alarmingly regular basis.On the weekend, De Ligt carelessly gave away a penalty against Inter Milan, which Lautaro Martinez converted. Luckily for him, Gonzalo Higuain scored a late winner to bail him out.

And his Dutch national teammates helped bail him out once again last night against Northern Ireland.

Ronald Koeman's side were staring down the barrel of a humiliating defeat when Josh Magennis put the spirited visitors 1-0 up with 15 minutes to go.

De Ligt was the man heavily responsible for the goal, committing two errors in the space of around 10 seconds.

DE LIGT'S STRUGGLES CONTINUE

When you're billed as one of the world's elite centre-backs, you simply cannot make mistakes like that.

Thankfully for the 20-year-old, Memphis Depay (x2) and Luuk de Jong were on hand to make sure his errors were not the big talking point of the game.

Holland ran out 3-1 winners, putting themselves in a prime position to automatically qualify for Euro 2020.

Koeman's side will be one of the hot favourites to win the whole tournament, but they will need De Ligt back to his best if they are to triumph.

Virgil van Dijk may be the best centre-back in world football, but he can't do it all on his own.