“I’m not trying to discredit Amad’s work but the academy guy I just promoted is better than him and you’ll see that against Everton”: Manchester United’s coach Ruben Amorim says ONE academic player he just promoted is better than Amad Diallo

Man Utd will be without star forward Amad Diallo for the remainder of the season.

Manchester United were struggling for goals even before their recent injury crisis and they are likely to struggle even more now that Amad Diallo has been ruled out for the remainder of the season.

The 22-year-old has been one of very few positives for United this campaign, with a coming-of-age improvement that has seen him net nine goals across all competitions. Bruno Fernandes is the only United player to have scored as many as Amad and the pressure is on the other forwards to finally step up and fill the void left by their latest star.

Ruben Amorim will have to find a way to replace the Ivorian’s unique skillset when they travel to Goodison Park for the final time this weekend and he has already hinted how he will look to cope without Amad for the remainder of the campaign. There are two most likely candidates to do so.

Manchester United have two obvious Amad replacements

United made four changes to their starting line up for the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend, with Joshua Zirkzee selected alongside Alejandro Garnacho in the two attacking midfield roles. Although they struggled for attacking threat in the match, the duo both played well individually, and it might well have been enough to earn a point if United had more options from the bench to freshen things up and push harder for an equalising goal.

Speaking after the match, Amorim praised the performance of Zirkzee in particular and suggested he is better suited to an attacking midfield role at a time when Amad is sidelined. “I think Josh is not a clear nine, he played more as a 10,” he said. “He’s stronger physically, he’s thinner, he’s working really hard and he played in a better position for him and he’s improving, he’s winning more duels, he’s even faster, and you feel it in the game. That helped us to make the decision.”

Zirkzee’s hold-up play and tendency to drop deep make him better suited to one of those midfield roles in Amorim’s tactical set-up, particularly because he can create the space required for Rasmus Hojlund to get in behind defences and pose more of an attacking threat himself.

He is not the only option available though, and if Amorim wants a more similar replacement for Amad then he has one in the shape of Patrick Dorgu. Although he was heralded as a left wing-back upon signing, the 20-year-old made the majority of his appearances for Lecce on the right wing earlier this season, a position where he scored all three of his league goals for the club.

A key attribute of Amorim’s approach is to have a left-footed player in attack who can open up different passing avenues and add an extra dimension to their style of play. United will not only lose the goal threat of Amad but they will also lose his unique skillset as a left-footed forward, something the head coach will be eager to address.

“If you see the history of Dorgu in the last team, he played a lot of games on the right,” said Amorim. “We have to have wingers who can play both sides like (Diogo) Dalot. It’s a really important thing; sometimes you need a left foot on the right side to come inside and connect in a different way, and sometimes you need a right-footer to connect and cross more balls.”

The obvious drawback is that United have waited so long to have a specialist left wing-back in their squad and having finally signed one, it would feel like somewhat of a waste to then play them in attack instead and persist with Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui out of position.