The real Romelu Lukaku is back at Manchester United – and he’s here to stay

The real Romelu Lukaku is back at Manchester United – and he’s here to stay by Ali Akbar

Tahith Chong should take Alexis Sanchez’s place in the Manchester United squad by Ali Akbar

Diogo Dalot’s performance for Manchester United in their 3-2 win over Southampton at Old Trafford showed that he is a better forward than Alexis Sanchez.

When Manchester United went 1-0 down against Southampton on Saturday, they clearly needed a spark from the bench to make a difference, as Alexis Sanchez just wasn’t cutting it.

The Chilean was too slow on the ball, far too deep to affect the game and rarely troubled the opposition keeper.

When he went down injured and waved for a substitution to be made I was kind of glad, as I knew we had much better players on the bench who were more hungry to get the win.

On came Diogo Dalot – and United looked like an entirely different side.

The right-back was told to play on the right wing today so that he can focus more on providing service into the box – and boy did he do that.

His first involvement of the game was a terrific cross from the right onto Marcus Rashford’s head, who sadly put it wide.

Nevertheless, Dalot continued to look determined to turn the game around, and did just that, when he played in Andreas Pereria who promptly scored an absolute worldie from outside the box.

Talk about an impact from the bench, eh?

Unlike Sanchez, Dalot looked like he had a gameplan in mind and didn’t just move around aimlessly waiting for one of his teammates to do something.

Instead, he looked to receive the ball and drive at the opposition before attempting to either put in a killer cross or take the shot himself.

The 19-year-old was much more effective than the overpaid 30-year-old in the short time he was on the pitch and deserves to keep his place in the starting XI.

That right-wing spot suits Dalot, who can function as a more traditional winger on that side as opposed to Anthony Martial on the other, who prefers to cut inside.

If the Portuguese continues to get assists and maybe even a goal or two from that position, he could make it his own at Manchester United in the years to come.