Manchester United fans desperately wait for the arrival of the talismanic Englishman Jadon Sancho. On the other hand, Ole’s project of removing deadwood from the club continues as well with Alexis Sanchez being the latest player to have been axed by Solskjaer because of his dreadful start to his Manchester United which he failed to come back from.
While these variables and factors might not apply to every single player who is on Solskjaer’s list to be shipped out, there remains a very talented right back from Portugal who just might be forced out of his dream club.
His name is Diogo Dalot. The 21-year-old has only made 11 appearances for United during the 2019-20 campaign, while he has featured on just one occasion for the club since the lockdown.
Interestingly it hasn’t been the case with Solskjaer not trusting the player, as a matter of fact, United had options in Antonio Valencia, Ashley Young and Dalot himself at right-back but Ole chose to use all three of them using Dalot nine times till the end of the 2018-19 season, being used more times than veteran Antonio Valencia.
Dalot also put in a fitting and fighting performance against PSG at the Parc des Princes and as a matter of fact, even won the penalty which Marcus Rashford put away to secure a 3-1 win. He has been highly rated as an offensive fullback by scouts all over the world, capable of getting in behind and overlapping with flashes of pace and putting in a cross.
But with Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s arrival, Dalot’s position changed massively, at least from Solskjaer’s perspective in the squad. It was known for a fact that Wan-Bissaka was going to be the right-back of preference to start for Solskjaer. However after Ashley Young departed for Italy it seemed to be that Dalot just might get a chance for his position.
That has not happened as it turned out, in fact, Solskjaer was ready to stick a limb out and play Timothy Fosu Mensah who had been out because of an ACL injury for 10 months. Solskjaer played Wan-Bissaka until it was evident Wan-Bissaka had ran out of steam post-project restart and in those situations it was Fosu Mensah who started.
In terms of Europa League matches , Solskjaer was hesitant to play Dalot there as well as he opted to play Marcos Rojo at right back when Wan Bissaka wasn’t playing in the Europa League campaign.
All this suggests a pattern that should ultimately make the conclusion of Solskjaer not wanting to include Diogo Dalot in his team going forward irrespective of how much raw potential talent there has been in him. If Dalot had been working hard with the right attitude and frame of mind he would surely have got the nod ahead of fullbacks past 33 years of age and a player who had not played for the better part of a year.
According to the Mirror, Diogo Dalot has been a subject of interest to Everton’s Marquee manager Carlo Ancelotti. Everton are planning a £10m swoop for the Portuguese outcast in Manchester and given Ancelotti’s preference and use of attack-minded fullbacks with the player profile of Diogo Dalot.
This move might suit all the parties as Dalot would really consider making the move as a bid to relaunch his career, Everton re getting a decent player with a high upper ceiling and Manchester United will be cash in on him with Solskjaer seeming to have already set his sights on Manchester United Graduate Timothy Fosu-Mensah for being Aaron Wan Bissaka’s backup.
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