One of the biggest beneficiaries of Erik ten Hag’s arrival at Old Trafford has been Diogo Dalot.
Alongside David de Gea, Dalot is the only other player to have started each one of Ten Hag’s 15 games in charge – a huge vote of confidence by the manager in the player.
As ESPN’s Rob Dawson reveals, this is not by chance and Dalot is reaping the fruits of the intensive preparation that he undertook before the season started.
Dawson reports, “Dalot made sure he was ready to impress Ten Hag during preseason by using part of his summer holiday in Portugal to work with a personal trainer, physio and a nutritionist.”
“A lot of the work centred around improving his agility and speed and, so far, it’s paying off – Dalot has clocked the third fastest sprint in the Premier League this season behind Darwin Nunez and Gabriel Martinelli.”
As per Dawson, this follows the hard work the Portuguese put in while out on loan in Italy with AC Milan.
So committed was Dalot in his duties and responsibilities that at times he slept at the Rossoneri’s training ground to make sure he had easy access to recovery equipment.
The 23-year-old is finally living up to the “the best full-back in Europe in his age group” tag that Jose Mourinho put on him back when United signed him in a £19m deal from Porto.
To highlight the player’s drastic improvement, no United player in the Premier League has had more touches of the ball than Dalot – 769.
Only Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes lead Dalot in the ranking for the most completed passes within the Red Devils squad.
Defensively, and offensively, the full-back is on another level. Only Casemiro has made more tackles than him and he comes third behind Martinez and Raphael Varane for clearances.
Certainly, Dalot is a player on an upward trajectory. With his contract expiring at the end of the season, United must ensure they tie him to fresh terms so as to ward off any interested parties.
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