Dalot says Man Utd players 'lost opportunity to show they deserve to be at club'

Diogo Dalot says Manchester United’s players blew an opportunity to “show that we deserve to be here” after a woeful display led to Ruben Amorim’s men making a humiliating Carabao Cup exit at Grimsby.

A bouncing Blundell Park witnessed the nadir of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era on Wednesday evening as the League Two side outfought and outthought the Premier League side in the first half.

Charles Vernam and United youth product Tyrell Warren put Grimsby into a deserved half-time lead, with the visitors fortunate to take the game to penalties as Harry Maguire followed up Bryan Mbeumo’s strike to make it 2-2.

But there was no escaping embarrassment in Cleethorpes, where Mbeumo missed the key spot-kick to hand the Mariners a mammoth 12-11 shoot-out win that left boss Amorim at a loss to explain his side’s display.

United right-back Dalot, part of the club’s leadership group and the only player to front up for the cameras afterwards, said: “Not good enough clearly, what we did especially in the first half.

“I think we gave the game to them, clearly, straight away, exactly what they wanted. Win duels, second balls, set plays.

“We fought back but I think that was the minimum that we could show to the fans that travelled today, for ourselves, for the club, but clearly not good enough.

“We cannot come here and expect that it’s going to be easy, because we know already these competitions, these clubs.

“Credit also (to them) because they fought really hard to deserve to go through, but it shouldn’t be enough to win against us because we should have shown much more.”

Dalot was goaded by gleeful Grimsby fans as he came back out at Blundell Park, where irked Amorim faced chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning”.

The exasperated Portuguese said his “players spoke really loud today what they want” in the second round defeat, saying widespread changes cannot be made but that “something has to change”.

Put to Dalot that United should have had enough quality to progress past fourth-tier opposition despite the challenging surroundings, he told MUTV: “Exactly.

“Not just the quality, but obviously the minimum standards that you ask in every game, the approach to the game.

“I think the best way for us to have respected Grimsby today was to come here and play 100 per cent. I think that’s what we need to improve for the future.

“I don’t want to go through the same sentence time and again. We just have to show (that) and we just lost one opportunity today to show that we deserve to be here.”

The loss leaves United desperately needing a first win of the season against promoted Burnley ahead of the international break.

Any sense of hope that build during the summer was well and truly extinguished at Grimsby, putting the team under the microscope in Saturday’s Premier League match at Old Trafford.

“The best way we can show it is on Saturday,” Dalot added.

“Show the approach has to be different, the quality has to be different and win the game. I think that’s what the fans want.”