Manchester United completed a second-consecutive European comeback, beating Plzen 2-1 in Czechia to put one foot in the straight qualification in the Europa League.
It was hardly a box-office performance, with Andre Onana’s error again costing the team as they trailed soon after half-time and Man Utd huffed and puffed without any threat.
Ruben Amorim’s subs changed the game, with Rasmus Hojlund’s brace the headline combined with smart play by Mason Mount and Antony.
It was a game where the subs ruled the roost but that is equally concerning because it implies the starting XI was below par for long stages.
One player in that XI has suffered a startling fall in form from being Erik ten Hag’s trusted lieutenant to Ruben Amorim’s unexpected headache.
Diogo Dalot’s form collapse
Diogo Dalot is the reigning Manchester United Player of the Year, an award that was completely deserved in a wretched last season as he was the one beacon of consistency.
No matter the position he was deployed at, Dalot was a regular “7/10” performer and he effectively ended Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s career at Old Trafford.
With Ruben Amorim coming in, the expectation was that Dalot was the one big positive from Ten Hag’s legacy handed over to his successor.
Six games into Amorim’s tenure, Dalot has been a non-factor at best, hurting the team at worst in the majority of those games.
His performance against Plzen didn’t even have the mitigating factor of playing on his unnatural left side as he started as the right-sided wing-back.
Dalot was where so many of United’s spells of threat ended as he either missed with the final ball or misplaced the killer pass most times.
He couldn’t get a partnership going with Amad, who started ahead of him in a No. 10 role on the day which, in theory, is United’s best combination on the right.
That follows Dalot’s bad display vs Forest and his theme of making the bad decisions, or not being able to execute the good ones continued.
Ruben Amorim needs to help turn Dalot around
United became fully committed to Dalot’s future at the club as soon as they sold Aaron Wan-Bissaka so this collapse in form comes at the worst possible time.
Man Utd fans will hope it’s not a sign of the player relaxing after securing his position in the team because it’s been a theme at United for many other players.
Dalot, to his credit, has always shown an elite mentality so it’s unlikely to be that which means that the change of system or the workload are factors contributing to this.
The latter has been managed by Amorim well for most of his squad but the options for the wing-back role are sparse.
The former, on the other hand, is a growing pain and if Dalot improves with time, that will take care of things by itself.
For now, the player Ten Hag could rely on during his rubble of a reign has become the odd man out in a new system under the new manager.
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