Diogo Dalot acknowledges it will be tough to accept Manchester United’s failure to qualify for the Champions League, but he wants to finish strongly after their defeat at Arsenal effectively ended their top-four chances.
With Erik Ten Hag’s summer arrival confirmed earlier in the week, the Red Devils followed up a humiliating 4-0 loss at Anfield with a 3-1 defeat against a suddenly revived Arsenal side.
“It is difficult for us to accept as this club belongs in the Champions League,” Dalot told MUTV.
“All I want to say is that if it is still mathematically possible then I will believe to the end. Obviously, it is going to be really difficult and we need to be realistic, everybody can see that in football things can happen until the end.”
“I don’t think it has to be our biggest focus now,” he added on the top-four hopes.
“It has to be our habits that we do every single day, the habits to come to training at Carrington with good energy and with a mentality that we will give everything for this club because at this club we have everything.
“We have to fight for ourselves, for the club, for our families, for the fans that travel every time.
“We need to mature everyone in terms of the team and we need to be more energetic, to want it more than them and dominate, I think that starts from our efforts every day.”
United fell six points short of the top four after playing more games than any of their competitors for the last Champions League slot.
