Diogo Dalot responds to Ruben Amorim ‘pinch’ to lead by example at Liverpool

Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot admits manager Ruben Amorim’s challenge for the players to show more leadership stung him into a response.

The full-back said he took a look at himself and asked what more he could do, and responded with performance in the 2-2 draw at Anfield which caused Trent Alexander-Arnold a host of problems.

Ahead of the trip to Anfield Amorim had said he needed “the leaders to step up to help the other guys” who were “sometimes afraid”.

That message was heard in the dressing room and the players responded with their best performance of the Portuguese’s short tenure.

“It pinched me. I think that’s what he wanted for every player,” said Dalot.

“I’ve been here for a while. I know that I can step up a little bit more as well in that level and I’m going to try to help my team-mates for as long as I can.

“As long as I’m on the pitch and outside the pitch, I will try to help them. You could see that we were more a team. That was the biggest difference.”

Amorim was the first United manager in 103 years to suffer five defeats in his first eight league matches and questions were starting to be asked about whether his desire to implement his methods from the start with a squad ill-suited to his requirements was wise, with the club 13th in the table and closer to the relegation zone than the top eight.

Part of the new manager’s problem is the lack of time he has had away from match preparation but that changed in the lead-up to the Liverpool game, for which he had a full week to prepare, and he will have the same again this week.

Dalot added: “It’s training, it’s proper training, it’s time on the pitch, knowing what everybody wants to do, almost like trusting ourselves that everybody will be in the right position to play in every aspect of the game in every inch of the pitch.

“When you have time to know what to do, I think it becomes more natural. And you saw the structure was much more compact, probably a bit more playing almost like we knew that this player would be in that position.

“I think, really good for us to keep on the same mentality, same track and we have a very difficult game again to play away from home (at Arsenal) and we want to get through the next phase of the FA Cup so that’s a very good challenge for us.”

Dalot admits it is difficult to say when United will really start to look like an Amorim side.

“I think that’s the million-dollar question for everybody but even for us it’s the cliche answer: we have to be game-by-game to be honest,” he said.

“There’s no point in thinking too much ahead because we don’t know what’s going to happen in the future.

“What we know is what we can control tomorrow. We have a good week to train, prepare the game against Arsenal and I think (the Liverpool game) is a good sign for us to show that when we train properly, when we know what to do, when we have the right approach, we can do things like this.”