Ruben Amorim challenges Amad Diallo to continue to raise his game | OneFootball

Ruben Amorim has challenged Amad Diallo to keep improving after the 22-year-old scored a dramatic 12-minute hat-trick to help Manchester United snatch a 3-1 victory over Premier League basement boys Southampton in a dramatic finish at Old Trafford.

For 80 minutes, all the problems United had suffered during a run of four straight defeats during December resurfaced as a Saints side with only one win all season created the better chances and deservedly led through a Manuel Ugarte own goal late in the first half.

United’s positive momentum from a 2-2 draw away to league leaders Liverpool and an FA Cup penalty shoot-out victory at Arsenal was slipping away until Diallo intervened, levelling in the 82nd minute before scoring again in the 90th minute and the third minute of time added on.

The Ivorian, who signed a new five-and-a-half year contract last week, had already come up with a dramatic winner at Manchester City last month before scoring the equaliser at Anfield, and this was another huge contribution, but Amorim is keen not to get carried away before Brighton visit on Sunday.

“I didn’t say anything to him, I will tell him tomorrow,” he said. “But he has to rest, eat good and prepare for Sunday because we will need him again. He did a great job, it’s a great moment for a young kid to score a hat-trick for a club like this. But he needs to focus on the next match already…

“The important thing is to win and he helped us to win. He’s doing a very good season. I’ve already said, you have to be careful with young kids. He did a really good job today.

“He has a lot to improve but this game is in the past and you have to prepare for the future. Football is like this and life is like this.”

Though there were celebrations at the end, this was another concerning performance from United, who have done well against stronger opposition when less is expected of them, but struggled to impose themselves on lesser opposition.

Part owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe was among those watching inside Old Trafford, and will not have enjoyed what he saw for much of the night.

“I had five minutes with him to talk about different things about the game,” Amorim said.

“It was not a good game but in the end the result helped the conversation. Today was more important to win. I know the fans want to see much better football than this. I want to see better football than this but we need time. To win time we need to win games and we did that today.

Juric rued the fact his Southampton team did not know how to “be more evil” when trying to see out the game late on.

“I think we did a really good 70, 75 minutes and then we had really bad management of the game,” the Croatian said.

“You cannot play 95 minutes at the same level. There is a moment where you have to manage things differently. We lost some balls in the middle and I didn’t like that. It is a real pity, a real shame to play like this and lose the game.”

Tyler Dibling was forced off midway through the second half with an ankle problem, and Juric admitted the substitutions did not help his team.

“I have to be honest, I expected a little bit more of everybody that came on. They have to give us more energy, more intensity.

“As a team we did a really good game, everything nearly perfect, (but) we should have scored more goals. But there is a point you have to be more evil, manage the game differently and we didn’t do that.”