Manchester United restarted their Premier League campaign with a whimper as they lost 0-1 to Nottingham Forest despite playing well.
Man Utd created the majority of the chances but were undone by one counter-attack off their own corner, as Anthony Elanga tore through the side.
Ruben Amorim bemoaned a lack of attacking quality as the reason behind the wasteful display because United did create enough to get one point, if not three.
However, that problem isn’t as simple as buying better attackers (although that will certainly help!), it’s about a position change for a player who’s never played there under Amorim.
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
Photo by Malcolm Couzens/Getty Images
Ruben Amorim’s Diogo Dalot dilemma
So far, in a sea of rotation by Ruben Amorim from game to game, one name has been constant, even to the chagrin of Man Utd fans on occasion.
Diogo Dalot has been the epitome of consistent availability and has played in multiple positions, sometimes in the space of 90 minutes!
However, his bringing up playing in a back-four system is painfully clear at times since he lacks the attacking nous to really knit together play in the final third.
Dalot has improved of late but the bar to clear was not so high. It is impossible to shake the feeling that in Amorim’s ideal XI, wingers will play as full-backs, or at least quasi-wingers like Patrick Dorgu who grew up playing forward.
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That leaves Dalot in no-man’s land. Or does it?
Dalot’s future as a centre-back for Man Utd
It’s a position that Dalot has never played for Man Utd under Ruben Amorim, or for any previous manager at Old Trafford for that matter, but it makes sense.
Dalot played as a centre-back in a back three for Porto’s youth team when he was coming through the ranks and his profile makes him an ideal fit.
He retains the engine and pace of a full-back, so necessary to sweep up the threat in the channels out wide.
In Amorim’s system, the wide center-backs regularly bomb forward to create overloads but are expected to run back with the same intensity, minus the attacking load.
That is the ideal job profile for someone like Dalot, who’s sound defensively, can run for days, and create the odd goal with his movement.
It’s not an immediate priority but when United buy an ideal right wing-back, they’ve already got the ideal right centre-back in Dalot.