Amad's time at Man Utd has been hot and cold. In fact, more would say that it has been more cold than hot and it's a surprise he hasn't actually frozen.
But that is a testament to his character and is an example for us all.
Since signing for the club in the fan-less campaign of 2020/2021, he came in as a young and relatively unknown player. We weren't sure about him even if we were willing to give the boy a chance.
Clearly, the club didn't see as much in him as he would've liked as he hardly featured in the first-team under all of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and former manager Erik ten Hag, so much so that he was sent out on loan a couple of times to the likes of Rangers and Sunderland.
That loan spell at Sunderland in particular was a resounding success as Amad picked up the Young Player of the Year award at the Stadium of Light.
Upon coming back to United last season after that loan spell, he had his struggles similarly to many of his team-mates as he too picked up the injury bug.
In what many thought to be 'his season', a knee injury ruled him out for 126 days and missing up to 22 games from the start of the campaign to December. He then proceeded to pick up an injury due to fitness problems and missed a further 5 matches.
However, once he was 100% available, he didn't look back and ended up being one of our best players for the final third of the season culminating in THAT goal against Liverpool in the FA Cup.
Still waiting on his statue outside Old Trafford for that moment 😄.
His good form continued on into pre-season as he was a standout and that carried on into the season proper. His performances were rewarded with the August player of the month for United, a month in which he lost his stepmother yet played the very next game the next day and managed to score even if the game ended in defeat to Brighton.
But these performances from the end of last season to the start of this just showed how good a player he is and why so many rated him so highly. The fact that he was finally getting his time in the first-team was something that made us all really pleased for him because he had been waiting patiently.
Then all of a sudden, he was not in the team anymore. It wasn't because of injuries, loss of form or poor attitude, it was for, what?
Now sacked manager Erik ten Hag just seemed to drop Amad for absolutely no reason at a point when he was building some momentum and confidence after getting regular run outs in the first-team.
This was the time to keep him in the side so as to build that momentum and confidence even further still because if he was performing at that level after a few months, imagine what he could do after a season of such form.
His absences from the first-team came out of nowhere and it was frustrating to see for many reasons. Amad was fit and available and playing well, is our best right-winger and both Rashford and Garnacho weren't putting up anywhere near the consistency levels of the Ivorian even if their output was statistically better.
All of us were really upset not least Amad himself.
His reactions to coming on against Fenerbahce for just a minute to replace the injured Antony said all about how the 22-year-old was feeling. Even all of Ruud van Nistelrooy (who was still assistant to ten Hag at that time), Rene Hake and Andreas Georgson all tried to cheer him up before making his way onto the pitch.
Nobody blamed him for feeling that way.
I still don't understand how ten Hag brought on Antony ahead of Amad in that game. The Brazilian even got injured not long after his introduction.
But contrast that to post ten Hag's sacking and every time we've seen Amad, he's been beaming with the biggest smile one could have. Even though last night's win over PAOK was his first start since the 3-3 draw at Porto two weeks ago, when he was on the touchline getting ready to come on in the last two matches, that smile was clear to see.
And in all of these last three games, he played some good football with his best performance coming last night in which he scored the 2 goals that got us the win.
His second goal was exactly what I mean when talking about his character.
Amad worked hard to win the ball back off the PAOK defender, keep it and fend off the defender while he tried to get back at our winger, and then proceeded to curl the ball into the corner with a peach of a shot. Yes there may have been a slight deflection on that shot to take it away from the goalkeeper and make it look better than perhaps it was, but he deserved that little bit of luck.
That persevernce and will to keep going, that determination and never give in attitude for that goal was Amad in a nutshell.
Ruud even said as much after the game:
"The second goal had everything in it that is Amad Diallo. He fought to win the ball, he pushed through to get the shot and had the quality to bend it around the goalkeeper. That sums him up" via Rich Fay.
This is an example to anyone, not just on the football pitch but in life.
When things don't go your way, you have two choices: feel miserable and like the world is against you and give up, or keep going despite trying so hard and getting very little reward (if any) as even if you're not getting the results, this hard work will be better for you and help you become stronger in the future.
And from what happened with Amad last night, you can see that you will get that reward sooner or later.
The fact that he chose the second option and kept his head down and kept working despite being wrongfully dropped is such a good case of what one should do when faced with difficult circumstances.
Attitude is everything.
Superb from Amad and well done for that 👏.
His performances for the last 6-7 months of football has proved that he is more than good enough to start. He for me, is our best right-winger and best winger and out of all of Garnacho, Rashford and Antony, Amad has shown that he has the makings to play Amorim ball more than the others.
His simple yet hard working style of play paired with the ability to take on players, create chances and score goals is much better suited to what the incoming boss wants compared to the other three's head down, shoot first ask questions later policy.
Amad should ALWAYS start on the right as also compared to Rashford and Garnacho, is a right-winger whereas the other two are better off the left.
Hopefully Ruud sees this and rewards him with a start on Sunday against Leicester although Amad did pick up an injury towards the end of last night's match. It didn't look too bad but you never know with these things.
Amad is a top player with the chance of being a great one.
Let him cook.
Background Image: Amad scores 2 goals in Man Utd's 2-0 win over PAOK | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)