Diogo Dalot has acknowledged that he and his Manchester United team-mates have not been "near good enough" this season and has called on the squad to raise their performance levels.
United trailed by two goals in the opening period of Tuesday's Champions League meeting with Roma, but staged a remarkable turnaround after the break. Bruno Fernandes converted a penalty and Matheus Cunha scored twice to secure a 3-2 victory, ending a run of nine matches without a win in all competitions.
Pressure on Carrick and the squad
Michael Carrick has faced intense scrutiny in recent weeks, with United's hierarchy meeting at Carrington following the defeat to Bournemouth to discuss his future. Asked whether the squad remained supportive of the manager, Dalot said everyone at the club is under pressure.
"Not just the manager, everyone is under pressure," he replied. "I mean, when you don't win games for this football club, every moment, every person, everyone involved gets under pressure. And we felt it obviously, because we're not near good enough of what we should have done. And like I said, nights like this can change momentum, can change seasons, and I think this win is going to give us confidence for the next games."
Turning point against Roma
Discussing the match, Dalot said: "I mean, I think a really good second half. I think we came with the right attitude. I think we did pretty much everything that we needed to do to turn the game on, and I mean, it's moments like this, it's nights like this that can change momentum, and hopefully we can change ours."
Dalot was exposed defensively against Roma, pushing high on the left flank, and he attributed this to Carrick's instructions to play high and wide. "Yes, obviously," he confirmed when asked about being told to advance. "We knew that they were going to play man-to-man, but that requires some things that we need to avoid, especially losing balls in the middle, because we knew that we're going to be too open."
"But after, obviously, after the second goal, we tried to fix it straight away. I think we balanced a little bit more the game and kept ourselves in the game, and I think second half we came right at it and won the game."
Testing period for the squad
Dalot also admitted that United's poor run has been a difficult phase for the squad. "These moments are really tough, I'm not going to lie," he said. "Unfortunately, I've had a few moments like this in the past, and the only way for us to get out is by winning football games. I think that's the only way you can get confidence. And nights like this, like I've said, give you an extra confidence that make you believe that you can create these moments, not just for us, but for the fans."
"And it's important from everyone around the club feeling that we care, that we want to turn this around, and I think we've showed, especially in the second 45 minutes, that we really want to turn this around."
