Not (quite) a 'Pick of the Week'

I had thought of nominating Amad Diallo as one of my 'Picks of the Week' two or three weeks back. I hesitated because 'Ruben Roulette' was always likely to be a problem in the new manager's early days, and United's fixture schedule didn't look great. And indeed, young Diallo was dropped to the bench for the first half of the defeat by Arsenal, while United were beaten by Forest next time out after that, and only just squeaked a late win against an ever-deteriorating City last week. So, I feel my caution was well justified.

However, he's now racked up 44 points in the last 6 games, and his price has shot up by 200k in the last week-and-a-half, and he might be due for another bump at any moment. I do rather fear I might have missed the boat on him. Indeed, with over 400,000 new owners piling in for him so far this week, he looks certain to receive the (usually ill-omened!) accolade of being the week's 'Most Transferred-In Player'. Now, that rush of enthusiasm for him might make him a candidate for one of my less laudatory 'Sheep Pick' posts; but as I said last week in regard to Enzo, sometimes a mass surge of enthusiasm is well justified. Diallo, for me, is looking much the most promising pick from Manchester United at the moment. While there have been some other impressive performances under Amorim so far - notably Mazraoui and De Ligt, and of course Bruno - I think they're all simply good players, doing what they normally do; and, although they might be playing in a slightly adapted role, a different area of the field to what they're more used to, they are essentially playing in the same style and making the same sort of contribution to the game as they had under Ten Hag.... as they would under any tactical system. Diallo is the only United player who looks like he's absolutely playing his socks off to impress the new manager.... and is actually thriving under Amorim's system of play.

And he only costs 5 million (well, 5.2 now... and counting...).

So, yes, he's definitely worth considering for a cheap fifth midfielder. However, I'm still slightly wary of getting him just yet.

Although the worst of United's December fixture speed-bump is behind them, I think Bournemouth this weekend won't be an easy game for them; and they still have to face Newcastle and Liverpool either side of the New Year. And they're really not yet playing all that well as a team. They're still adapting to Amorim's tactical ideas; and the selections are still all over the place - never the same lineup up two gameweeks in a row (Ruben, my boy, I'm afraid this is being dangerously overdone!).

Moreover, a lot of the boy wonder's new purchasers are getting rather over-excited about the (probably unfounded) notion that he'll be even more of an attacking threat 'now that he's being played as one of the 10s rather than as a wing-back'. Um, he's not. Not yet. That was a one-off experiment in the City game. Amorim wanted to try Bruno out in a deeper role (which he might not want to do again); and he wanted to deliver a wrist-slap to two of his more obvious No. 10 candidates, Rashford and Garnacho (which he might or might not want to do again...). Diallo might well be back at wing-back this weekend (on either side!). Or dropped to the bench again. With Amorim's selections so wildly unpredictable at the moment, you just can't have any confidence in who he'll pick or where he'll try to play them.

Yes, this sudden switch of position actually alarmed me, more than anything: it made me think that if the erratic new coach hasn't yet decided where to play Diallo, maybe he hasn't even fully decided that he wants to play him (regularly) at all....  And it should be noted that in a lot of his comments before and after that City game, he was stressing that it was unfair to ask too much too soon from young players. Now, he might just have been talking about the psychological burden of inflated expectations; but he might also have been thinking in terms of minutes, of physical stress and the drain on stamina. So, I don't think we can yet trust that Diallo is an absolutely nailed starter.

Competition for FPL squad places is also a deterring factor. Bruno Fernandes has also been in excellent form in recent weeks, and a lot of people (over 14%) now own him. United certainly aren't yet good enough for anyone to be doubling up on their midfield, so that's an either/or dilemma. Even more importantly, Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez, with his form and upcoming fixtures, has become clearly the best of the sub-6-million-pound midfield options for now. And, although I tend to feel that you shouldn't need or want more than one budget midfielder, there are a number of other very tempting options in that price bracket: Rutter, Kluivert, Iwobi, Hudson-Odoi.

So, I'll be keeping a very close eye on Amad Diallo. And I think I'll be moving in for him as soon as my current 5th or 4th midfield picks falter at all. (Or maybe as soon as he gets another double-digit haul, and his price threatens to jump even higher!)  But for now, I find him - just about - resistible. [Damn - he scored another goal last night in the League Cup quarter-final against Spurs. I am so tempted....]

The Thai commentators I have to endure for most of my live coverage at the moment rather amusingly pronounce his name as Armadillo - hence my opening photo.