We have Malacia. Injuries or not. He's been better than Dalot at LWB IMO.
20
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 34
- Clean sheets
- 9
- Goals
- 0
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Red cards
- 1
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Jamie (@Vault Dweller) are here to celebrate rare back-to-back victories for Manchester United! They analyse the late win in the Europa League vs. Rangers and then try and find things to analyse in a pretty dour game vs. Fulham. They also chat about the latest Marcus Rashford news, and look at the latest transfer news.
That clearance at the start of the 2nd half 
This thread is not to be taken seriously. I think he had a good first half and a below average second, but folks overreact to his performances on here when they’re not great, and roundly dismiss them when they are pretty good.
I’ve never seen anything like it that I can remember. He has played almost every minute of every game for years now, always in our top 3 for minutes played. He covers multiple positions, never stops running, is almost never injured, doesn’t moan, and actually brings a lot of qualities that go unrecognized. Garnacho today time and time again was able to find space on the inside because Dalot kept making great runs and dragging defenders with him. It becomes more obvious when you see how little our other fullbacks or wingbacks make these runs. He constantly finds space out wide or behind to receive the ball, vs half of our players who don’t know how to create space. Somehow our posters on here can see when he makes a bad decision at the end of an attack, but can’t seem to notice how he’s always involved because of his movement and understanding of space. The number of times our CBs look up and only find Dalot moving into an area where he can receive pass is pretty crazy.
Is he wasteful, especially on the left? Yes. But Jesus there are easily 10 players or more who deserve to be gone or benched before him.
Think i agree basically. Does a pretty good job of getting back to defend too.
Agreed. In someways he reminds me of how Kyle Walker was precieved when he was at Spurs and early on at City. People kept calling him 'brainless' because of the occasional blunder but totally ignored the good parts of his game until he became a key player for City.
Great post, Dalot was often seen as 'bad' because he is very involved in our possession with or without the ball. Half of our players' positioning is so bad that they can't find the space when the team is attacking and are in the wrong position/wrong side when defending.
Thats all good stuff but not the reason to praise him over the odds (I agree, he wasn't bad yesterday, singling him out felt odd to me too) - it is rather a reason to criticize his teammates.
Also I don't know why his game time gets brought up as defence for him. Because at the same time, him being given opportunities, trust and time will obviously also be a part of him developing into a stable for us.
He doesn't "find space" because "he's so good at it". This is built into our formation, its a feature. CBs, CMS, 10s and striker are busy in the channels and the centre which drags defenders in there too. Wingbacks are supposed to make use of that space out wide and to make sure this feature doesn't kick back when opposition tries to exploit our narrowness. Criticism towards Dalot is about him not being able to do much with the space and time he often gets because he is an average fullback in terms of attacking output. Yes, same goes for all of our fullbacks, heck even for most of our wingers but not being the worst doesn't automatically make him good.
He is in need of a rest, I am sure most agree with that. But he also needs competition because I am quite skeptic whether he has the level we need when we are trying to build a squad that can go toe to toe with our rivals. Certainly it isn't a case of him being at that level already.
Doesn't absolve him from criticism. And other players get criticized just as well.
Then the run back to get in line for the corner, head down acting calm whilst everyone else was miles away.That clearance at the start of the 2nd half
I get unreasonably annoyed by watching Dalot at LWB. The weird movement, the bad decision making, the reluctance to cross with his left. Feels like karmic punishment for some misdeed in a former life.
I understand he's playing out of position, and I have sympathy for that. It's an absolute must-fix squad issue though.
I understand he's playing out of position, and I have sympathy for that. It's an absolute must-fix squad issue though.
He gives off a air of confidence and composure and yet ,within a period of 5 minutes, he can achieve the dumbest fecking shit you'll ever see during a weekends worth of football.
Great post. This season especially we have asked him to become Bale. Even yesterday he played the LWB and then moved to LCB. Sometimes during the game, he will go to the opposite flank etc. He has had some bad games this year, but he has been one of our most committed players.
Imagine Shaw having to play his role. After 10 minutes he will ask for a substitution.
Yes of course wide players generally get space because of the system but in general Dalot is pretty good at finding space. Whether as an overlapping RB under ETH, playing inverted or as wing back under Amorim, it's absolutely not a coincidence he sees so much of the ball in both defensive and offensive actions. By virtue of him 1) actually have the athletic ability to do it, 2) actually willing to do it (i.e make runs, give options) and 3) the fact he's a team player, he find himself in space compared to almost anyone else in the team because he also understands (cerebral or not) how to make it.
It's all well and good that he's "good at finding space", but he almost never does anything with the ball that benefit our attack.
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I wasn't necessarily arguing against that, although I would say he's barely had a chance to play on the right this season. However, he is objectively good at finding and making space imo.
I wouldn't argue at all against your point 1 and 2. Probably not even 3. But I don't watch other teams enough on a regular basis to compare Dalot (which I consider myself knowing quite well at this point) to other players in terms of quality. I think his standout feature this season is his availability which is good to have but as I said, maybe not enough when we are actually try to compete for titles. My personal stance is that we should add new wingbacks for the left and right but considering limited ressources we'll probably only go the one on the left. Then it probably will be Mazraoui or Dalot on the right with Dalot probably edging it due to his availability and athleticism for the short term future. I just don't see him as a future starter for us at this point which might change if he can do something about his productivity in attack.
That's fair but if you have time, you should watch other teams and football if you want to get an idea of how shambolic our team is tactically and in terms of player synergy. That will then give you an idea of how to better rate such things as availability, athletic talent, finding space and attacking contributions because at Utd, those are mostly individual achievements i.e nobody is really given the best platform to perform. I would say more so for our fullbacks where they are exposed to a lot of individual defensive duels and are being asked a lot of contribute going forward too.
It's fine to think Dalot is not all that but I feel it's a bit harsh to think that he simply gets space and happens to be involved around the pitch because of circumstance and less because of his actual individual effort.
Fulham 0:1 Man Utd
New
Decent performance.
Keep him at RWB. Whatever his ability, he is the sole player who is athletic enough to play RWB.
Might be stupid of me but I am somewhat hopeful we could see a big improvement in our team if we get dorgu and play dalot on right. Just by seeing two players at wing back who are athletic and don't have cut inside all the time
I am perplexed at anyone thinking we can go places with this guy as a starter. He’s one of the worst full backs in the league, and his goal contribution over the years is appalling. Absolutely incredible at High fiving other players for doing well, though.
Agreed - have said this many times in the CF thread. If we can get players who will push on past the 10's it should benefit everyone, more crosses, more overloads. If they are on their correct foot and are athletic/fast it's immediately 10 x better than it is now.
Dalot is a ok right back, that's it. He doesn't have the offensive capabilities of what Ruben would expect from a wingback, which is what we're seeing in Amad.
Such a poor opinion, literally one of our best players last year and he's not the problem at the moment. He's shown last year he can play to a decent level when played in his right position, he's not been good this season but I think most wouldn't if your forced to constantly play on your weakest foot.
On top of that, his attitude seems brilliant, will play his weaker position constantly and never complain, he's hardly ever injured and people (While he's forced to sacrifice for the team and play in his weakest side of the field) want to have a go at how he's not playing well enough in that position is beyond me.
Most agree Trent is one the best full backs but if he was forced to play LB I guarantee he would look awful.
But unfortunately we only have one amad and he is our first choice at 10
Hopefully that change in the summer. Whether Amad stays as a RWB, which I personally believe is his best role, or we sign a number 10.
Either way Dalot isnt anywhere near the quality you'd expect from a wingback.
You may be right but I still hope him playing there, dorgu on the left and amad at 10 could make us a lot better until the summer
His statistical output is horrendous. And not many people think Trent is actually a great full back, he’s known as a great playmaker and nothing else.
Are attacking stats worth looking at too deeply if he’s playing in a non functioning team with terrible strikers? Is he not a good crosser or are the strikers making dreadful runs? Quite often he was the out ball last season and the only option he had was hoofing it down the line. Thats more on the midfield not showing than him not being a progressive passer.
Using my eyes, I can see he offers a lot more than Maz as a wing back. Not as much as Amad, obviously, but overall the right side probably looks better with Amad at 10 and Dalot behind than any other combo we have available.
We need two left wing backs, a striker, a midfielder and probably a goalkeeper before we think about buying a starting level right wing back.
If Amad is going to be moved further up the pitch a RWB is absolutely paramount.
I dont think he is very attacking and dont rate him going forward, he may not be the future but if hes playing in a decent team, he will improve
Hopefully with Dorgu in he'll be able to price if he's good enough at right wing back! Given his fitness I'd still guess he plays just about every game anyway, going left wing back to rotate Dorgu out and then otherwise going right wing back. Just hopefully he can work on his attacking more from the right. He's essentially had 1.5 seasons of right back development interrupted as he's needed to cover at left back the whole time, which isn't fair on him IMO.
As if that means anything at all.
More of that mindset and we'll definitely lead any optimism and hope leagues.
That being said, the other commentator saying he would be one of the worst FBs in the league is hyperbole as well but answering it with hyperbole isn't going to achieve a bit. Dalot had one good season all things considered. Player development isn't linear, there are enough players out there who achieved exactly that: one good season. We probably have enough other areas to focus on but being lower on the list of potential upgrades shouldn't lead to giving hollow praise. I'd consider that a poor opinion as well - which makes it clear that such concept is never going to work.