Ruben Amorim must drop ‘very important’ Manchester United star vs Man City as concerning trend continues

Ruben Amorim should look to drop Diogo Dalot from his Manchester United line-up for the upcoming Premier League clash against Manchester City.

Diogo Dalot won Manchester United’s Player of the Year award for the 2023/24 campaign after displaying consistency in an extremely difficult environment.

The Portuguese defender would be playing with different centre-backs each week, jumping from left-back to right-back, but kept a solid level throughout.

Whether he was dropping into the back three, moving into the midfield or holding width on the touchline, the 25-year-old showcased abilities in all of the roles that were asked of him by Erik ten Hag.

Amidst the injury crisis, Dalot started 48 out of a possible 52 appearances and almost always played the entire 90 minutes. So far this term, he has started 23 out of 24 games.

Ruben Amorim came into the club and quickly identified the importance of the Portuguese fullback. He has started five of his first six games and came off the bench at half-time in the only match he was left on the bench for.

“A great player that can help the team and he is really a team player,” he said of Dalot. “You can feel it in every way, he leads the game and he is very important for us.”

And while Dalot can certainly be a ‘very important’ player for the club, it seems increasingly clear that he needs some time out of the spotlight to recover from his relentless streak in the team.

Ten Hag’s reliance on him throughout the last year became a concerning trend, and that has been evident in periods this season where his levels have dropped far too low considering what he showed last term.

The arrival of Noussair Mazraoui in the summer looked like it would afford Dalot some important rest but he has instead been filling in on the left side due to the lack of fully fit options in that position.

Manchester City may be vulnerable right now but their players can still bring quality and punish sloppiness from United, and while those moments are coming from too many players, Dalot is one of them right now.

Against Viktoria Plzen on Thursday, he showed glimpses of his quality, such as his pass to break the press in the build-up for an early Bruno Fernandes chance. But there were too many moments where he was slow to react or poor on the ball.

With Amorim’s squad now almost exempt of injuries, Dalot should now be taken out of the team. Not only because he is not hitting the levels he needs to right now, but that he deserves a needed rest to be able to offer what we were seeing last season.

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