Manchester United boss favours this type of players – Diogo Dalot reveals
Manchester United right-back Diogo Dalot has revealed Ralf Rangnick favours high-pressing players at Manchester United.
Dalot has seen his game time improve drastically under Rangnick, and in his first month under Rangnick he recovered an average of seven balls per match and had the highest number of shots on target among the United full-backs with 23%. The Portuguese recorded the highest percentage of challenges (62%) and tackles won (70%), an average of 14 challenges per match with nine challenges won, and also the best percentage of aerial duels (64%) and challenges won in defence (63%), with an average of 2.8 successful tackles.
“The fact that my numbers have increased a lot has to do with the combination of several aspects,” Dalot said, as quoted by Manchester Evening News.
“First, the physical and the playing part, which for me has always been the priority, and having that rhythm of play and the willingness to play game after game gives me more physical capacity to do that for longer.
“Then, of course, the training part, where especially last year I spent many moments alone, with [Stefan] Pioli and his assistants, where I focused mainly on the mental part. I have the speed and I have the strength, now we are going to use that in a more intelligent way in many moments, trying to read and anticipate the play.
“The messages that Mr. Ralf has been passing are also very important, he likes reactive, intelligent players who know how to read the game and press high, but to make an anticipated pressure that results from reading the play.
“I confess that it has worked and I have noticed it, especially in the statistics of ball recovery. Putting all these pieces together has been the key to having these numbers.”