Ralf Rangnick appears to agree with Mourinho over Man Utd's 'next Gary Neville'

Newly appointed Manchester United Ralf Rangnick was full of praise for his players after his side beat Crystal Palace 1-0, and one certain player exceeded expectations.

It took the Red Devils until the 77th minute to break the deadlock, with unlikely goalscorer Fred curling a great effort over goalkeeper Vicente Guaita and into the back of the net.

There were plenty of positives for the United faithful to take away from Rangnick's first game in charge, especially with the switch to the 4-2-2-2 formation bringing the very best out of fullback Diogo Dalot.

The Portuguese defender was highlighted by former RB Leipzig boss Rangnick in his post-match interview as a standout performer, speaking about the formation change, the German said: "For me, the question was how do we get pressure on the ball, how do we get control? So I decided to play 4-2-2-2 with two strikers, not Cristiano alone upfront, together with Marcus, using pace for vertical balls.

"And, at the same time, with Jadon and Bruno on the two 10 positions, for the rest [of the players] it was the same. We had enough space with Bruno and Jadon in those 10 positions for our full-backs to play forward and ask for the ball on the wing.

"So they almost played like wing-backs. Especially in the first half, Alex (Telles) and Diogo (Dalot), did extremely well offensively and that's why I played 4-2-2-2. I'm a big fan of every player plays in his best possible position."

The praise for Dalot, and even his inclusion in the first team, will be a shock to most who didn't get to watch the game considering the Portuguese defender had played 93 minutes of Premier League football before Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was sacked last month.

But it won't be a surprise to Jose Mourinho, who rated the 22-year-old very highly during his time in the Old Trafford dugout.

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Speaking in 2018, the now-Roma boss said: "Everybody knows that he (Dalot) has fantastic potential.

"I don't want to compare, especially not the number of titles but he is probably the same age as Gary Neville when he came into the first team.

"Probably he can follow Neville in this dynamic of more than 10 years as United's right-back, with amazing conditions to improve, because as I was saying he's 19 years old."

However, the former FC Porto player's progress has been hindered over the last few seasons for a plethora of reasons, but namely the arrival of Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Palace for £50million in 2019.

But Wan-Bissaka has struggled for consistency at the Theatre of Dreams, with his lack of ability in the final third leading many to question why he attracted such a significant fee.

In Rangnick's system, he likes his fullbacks to push on and be as much of a presence in the final third as they are defensively, which has opened the door for Dalot to impress.

If the 22-year-old can continue to take the chances that he is being given by the German boss with both hands then he could quickly become one of the first names on the team sheet and live up to the expectations that Mourinho has of him.