De Ligt, who emerged as a first teamer under Erik ten Hag at Ajax, could not help his old boss keep his United job. It was the penalty he gave away that saw West Ham win the final game of Ten Hag's reign.
With Ten Hag now replaced by Ruben Amorim, De Ligt believes things could have turned out differently.
“Normally I am always self-critical and I can get annoyed about things that I do not do well. But here I could not do anything about it, I could not blame myself for it," De Ligt is quoted as saying by De Telegraaf.
"The referee committee also called us to say that it was not a penalty.”
“A dismissal can always be quite hard. We discussed some things,” he added.
“He brought me to Manchester, the goal was to achieve success together with Erik.
"He has not been very lucky. We played well in many matches, but we did not use the chances we got. It is a shame that it has to end like this.”