Erik ten Hag will show whether he trusts defender in Newcastle vs Manchester United dilemma

When the referee blew for full-time at Wembley last month, Diogo Dalot sprung from the bench to embrace Erik ten Hag.

Dalot, who had been anticipating the whistle, was the first to react and he caught Ten Hag by surprise. The Dutchman grabbed his face with two hands to celebrate and Dalot eventually sprinted away to revel in the moment with his teammates.

The pair have a strong relationship, but the right-back only had that much energy remaining for his enthusiastic celebration because he'd been substituted for Aaron Wan-Bissaka at half-time in a tactical change that was necessary to make.

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Manchester United were two goals ahead of Newcastle at half-time in the Carabao Cup final, which essentially killed the contest, but attacking down Dalot's side had given the North East side plenty of encouragement before they conceded.

The tricky Allan Saint-Maximin has the talent to cause problems for some of the world's best defenders when at his best and the Wembley occasion had clearly lit a fire inside him, as he looked sharp, dangerous and unpredictable.

Regardless of his improvement, Dalot's ability to deal with such players has remained questionable and he could not get close to Saint-Maximin, which led to him receiving a yellow card in just the ninth minute of the game.

Newcastle were clearly targeting Dalot and Saint-Maximin was making him look foolish whenever the opportunity arose. The verve of the Frenchman was exploiting the flaws in his defensive game and the yellow card meant a change was inevitable.

Ten Hag could not risk a yellow-carded Dalot on the pitch against Saint-Maximin and Wan-Bissaka replaced him at half-time. Newcastle had their