Solskjaer: Man Utd see top potential in Amad Diallo

James Shearman

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:40 CDT
• 2 min read

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed his thoughts on new signing Amad Diallo’s start to life at Manchester United.

Diallo has already won many plaudits at Old Trafford, despite not yet making his debut in the Premier League.

However, the Ivorian winger has had a goal in the Europa League to his credit and has also excelled in Premier League 2.

Having only arrived from Atalanta in January for an initial fee of £18.9 million, the 18-year-old is taking to English football impressively well for a player of such little experience.

“He’s still a young lad, he’s 18 and of course we see top top potential in him. That’s why we signed him,” Solskjaer told Sky Sports Football YouTube.

“He’s learning and we believe he has the attributes mentally, technically and physically to be a top player for us.”

Diallo’s language barrier

Diallo had only played five times for his previous club Atalanta and so it comes as no surprise that the youngster is far from the finished article.

But while he has to work on improving his on-pitch abilities, a perhaps tougher skill to grasp is learning English.

Diallo arrived with no knowledge of the language and the United boss admitted he lacks confidence as a result.

“He’s a very good lad, very likeable and works hard. But he needs to adapt to a new country and new language,” Solskjaer added.

“He doesn’t speak English well enough, still, to be confident enough to engage in the conversations but that’s coming.”

The language barrier has certainly not proved to be an issue when given game time in the Red Devils’ shirt, though, with a looping header against Milan key in his team’s progression to the next round of the Europa League knockout stages.

Even though Diallo was signed in January, Man Utd are still thought to be interested in another right winger this summer in the form of Jadon Sancho, whom they tried desperately to sign ahead of the 2020/21 campaign.