Manchester United defender Diogo Dalot has insisted the club can “win a Premier League” under Ruben Amorim despite the Portuguese coach’s difficult start to life at Old Trafford.
Since Amorim succeeded Erik ten Hag at the beginning of November, United have lost seven of their 13 league games — leaving the English giants 13th in the table and closer to the relegation zone than the Champions League places.
But Dalot is adamant he has seen enough of Amorim behind the scenes to make him confident that United can add to their 13 EPL titles in the future.
“If you want me to be completely honest, with this manager, I think we can win a Premier League,” Dalot told United’s club website. “I think realistically we can win. But then it becomes the most difficult thing to hear as a fan: that it will take time.
“I understand. I’m a player but, at the same time, I know what you feel. I know that this club is thirsty to win and everybody wants to win. We’re not talking about cups — I know that is important, to win trophies — but what brought this club to what it is is big trophies.
“I think we can win a Premier League with this manager, but at the same time, we need to create an environment where he has everything set for what he wants from the players. We need to also adapt to the system. It will take some time.
“Obviously we cannot think too much ahead, but I’m really convinced that the way he conducts himself, the way that he communicates with players, the idea that he has … We can do it. Now it becomes the most difficult part, but being really honest and positive about it, I think we can win big trophies with this manager.”
Amorim has attempted to stamp his authority at United since taking charge, with a change in system and high demands on his players. He exiled academy product Marcus Rashford from the squad over the winter before the England forward joined Aston Villa on loan and has made several other high-profile calls, such as dropping both strikers Rasmus Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee to the bench in the last league defeat to Crystal Palace.
Dalot acknowledged the changes as he added: “I see things a little bit differently.
“Obviously I share every day, every moment with my teammates, with the people around the club, with the new staff as well, and you can see that there’s one way to go.
“Sometimes when you are going that way, you have a lot of things that you need to change, and there’s a lot of change going on at the club, and it’s always difficult at this point where you want to change things but, at the same time, you need to win games. The last couple of months we have been trying to train during games, so it’s been a really tough process.
“I don’t like to sound as if it’s always excuses, but it’s the reality, and sometimes we need to face it. But at the same time, we have been fighting and trying to get things better. But we also know that we have a lot of responsibility and we need to do much better than we have been doing in the last couple of games.
“Because there’s some moments that we’ve shown we can be a good team; that we can do what the manager wants us to do. We’re just trying to find that consistency.”
United’s next game is at fellow strugglers Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.
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