Manchester United returned to winning ways last night with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Real Betis in the first leg of their Europa League round of 16 tie.
The Red Devils started with a high tempo in the first half and opened the scoring from a powerful Marcus Rashford strike after just six minutes on the clock.
Betis equalised out of the blue in the 32nd minute through Ayoze Perez but United produced a stunning display after the break to secure a convincing victory.
Antony, Bruno Fernandes and Wout Weghorst found the back of the net but United could have won the game by a bigger margin with some better finishing.
There were plenty of positives nonetheless and Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s half-time entry for Diogo Dalot is something which caught our eye during the game.
Wan-Bissaka quickly becoming the manager’s favourite
Wan-Bissaka was largely out-of-favour under Ten Hag at the beginning of the season. The right-back played just four minutes of first-team football before the World Cup.
However, the €18 million-rated star has had a terrific revival to his United career since the tournament. He initially benefitted from Dalot’s hamstring injury playing for Portugal.
Wan-Bissaka has since been regularly rotated with Dalot in the right-back role. The 25-year-old is not the most gifted going forward but defensively, he rarely lets the team down.
The right-back recently produced his best display under Ten Hag in the Carabao Cup final. He replaced Dalot at half-time and basically nullified the threat of Allan Saint-Maximin.
Yesterday, we saw something similar. Wan-Bissaka replaced Dalot at the interval. He did not have any duels to win but controlled the proceedings from the right side of the defence.
In our opinion, Wan-Bissaka is quickly becoming a favourite under Ten Hag and we won’t be surprised if the manager decides against pursuing another right-back during the summer.
Dalot and Wan-Bissaka have played 45 minutes apiece in a couple of games over the past fortnight and we could see this happening more often in the remainder of the campaign.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com
