Diogo Dalot has had enough of life without European football as he and Manchester United target a return to the Champions League.
That is looking an increasingly likely prospect as their stellar form under Michael Carrick continued on Sunday as a 2-1 come-from-behind win at home to 10-man Crystal Palace lifted them up to third – their highest position in the Premier League since the end of the 2022/23 campaign.
Carrick has overseen six wins in his seven games in charge, all of which have been in the league, with United having failed to qualify for European football this term and swiftly exiting both domestic cup competitions at the first hurdle.
United last played in the Champions League in 2023/24, dropping down to the Europa League last season when they made the final but lost to Tottenham in Bilbao, and sitting out European competition this term has hurt.
“I thinks seasons like this are good for you to know that when you’re playing Europa League and especially Champions League, those are the best years, those are the best seasons,” Dalot said.
“This year we play, I don’t know, a maximum of 40 games because we came out of the cup even in the early stage, so this is nowhere near what the club should be and the competitions that we should play in.
“So when we are there, when we get the main goal that I really believe that we’re going to do next season, if we’re playing Champions League, we cannot take it for granted and we need to put the club back in there.”
United were not at their best against a Palace side who took an early lead through Maxence Lacroix but then had the French defender sent off early in the second half for conceding a penalty from which Bruno Fernandes levelled.
Fernandes then set up Benjamin Sesko to score his second winner of the week eight minutes later. While Sesko took many of the headlines for his sixth goal in seven league games, Fernandes was once again the key man for United as he dragged them forward.
It has been the case for United so many times that the Portuguese can almost be taken for granted at times.
His influence is ridiculous. pic.twitter.com/tf1zyuYMDk
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) March 1, 2026
“When you’re so consistent, when you play for many years at a very high level, sometimes when you’re not there for one game people start doubting and people start always thinking that you should do that all the time,” Dalot said of his compatriot.
“But that’s the most difficult thing in football, to be consistent during the whole season, whether you’re going to have ups and downs, but he’s always a player and person who shows up all the time and he never hides, so I think that’s what this club needs.
“It’s important because it keeps you alive during the game at every moment.”
