Nicky Butt argues why he cannot fault Diogo Dalot and another Man Utd player who was ‘only one trying’

Nicky Butt has put forward a powerful defence for Diogo Dalot and his Manchester United teammate after the Bournemouth defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon.

Diogo Dalot completed the full 90 minutes of Manchester United’s encounter with Bournemouth and was played out of his preferred right-back role for the match.

The 27-year-old Portugal star was deployed at left-back and made 12 clearances from the position, including winning two tackles and completing 49 accurate passes.

Michael Carrick was forced to turn to Dalot as a makeshift left-back for United’s 3-0 defeat to Bournemouth due to the absences of Luke Shaw and Patrick Dorgu.

READ MORE: Paul Scholes would offload Bruno Fernandes and another Man Utd star from Old Trafford in heartbeat now

Nicky Butt claims that Diogo Dalot and Harry Maguire were the only Man Utd stars who stood out against Bournemouth

Manchester United were left licking their wounds on Sunday afternoon, as Bournemouth outclassed the Red Devils in a comfortable win. Rayan broke the deadlock for Bournemouth in the first half before Marcus Tavernier doubled the Cherries’ lead ahead of half-time.

Man Utd’s woes only intensified further in the second half at Old Trafford after Evanilson scored to seal Bournemouth’s 3-0 win at the weekend. Harry Maguire had been handed the Man Utd captain’s armband after Michael Carrick had dropped Bruno Fernandes to the bench.

Harry Maguire, much like Diogo Dalot, saw out the full 90 minutes and completed 67 out of 72 passes and had 11 clearances to his name. Speaking to Red Devils legend Paul Scholes, former Man Utd midfielder Nicky Butt claimed that Dalot and Maguire were the only two players who showed a desire to fight back against Bournemouth.

“They’re at Old Trafford yesterday, right? And I know […] Bournemouth aren’t a bad team, but they’re not a Liverpool or a Man City or a Chelsea or Arsenal,” he said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast.

READ MORE: Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt rank all seven Man Utd managers post-Sir Alex Ferguson and agree on No 1 pick

United’s 51-year-old ‘Class of ‘92’ star added: “We shouldn’t be getting beat 3-0 against them. It should be like a s— 1-1 draw. And ‘boo, that was rubbish, lads,’ but we got a draw out of it. 3-0. And it should have been six, [as] you said.

“The only person that I would say yesterday looked like they were going to drive and do anything on that football pitch was Harry Maguire. He was the only one trying to run forward and try to do anything.

“Dalot gets a lot of c— from a lot of players. He’s playing out of position and he’s up [and] down. You can’t fault his effort. I can fault a lot of effort in the rest of them. 100 per cent.”

United have tumbled down the Premier League table after Sunday’s result and the Red Devils now languish in 16th place. The Red Devils have only collected seven Premier League points from eight matches in the 2026-27 campaign under Carrick.