Amad Diallo's AFCON form shows Michael Carrick what he can do at Manchester United

Three goals and an assist later, he has been one of the tournament’s most compelling performers for Ivory Coast, playing with a freedom and authority that has too often been missing from his club career.

International tournaments have a habit of stripping footballers back to their essentials. In Amad’s case, this has revealed a player ready to be trusted as more than a useful option or tactical compromise.

For United, drifting through another uncertain season and now entering a new interim era under caretaker manager Michael Carrick, that matters.

There is something about AFCON that exposes character as much as quality. The games are intense, the margins small, and the scrutiny enormous back home.

Amad has thrived in that environment.

He has not simply popped up with goals; he has driven Ivory Coast’s attack, demanding the ball, taking responsibility in tight spaces and producing decisive moments when games threatened to slip away.

His three goals have been varied – a curled finish from the edge of the box, a late run to meet a cut-back, a cool one-on-one – while the assist came from precisely the kind of incisive pass United’s attack has lacked for long spells this season.

What stands out most is the clarity of his role. For Ivory Coast, Amad has been used where he is best: starting wide on the right, cutting inside onto his stronger right foot, and operating close enough to goal to make things happen.

There is no confusion about his brief. He is there to create, to score, to be the spark.

All this is a far cry from his experience at Old Trafford, where he was largely overlooked under Erik ten Hag and then, in one of those ideas that sounds clever until it actually has to work, shunted into a wing-back role under Ruben Amorim.

Asking a player whose game is built on subtlety and invention to think first about his defensive positioning never felt like a route to unlocking his best football.

Carrick’s appointment as caretaker manager until the end of the season changes the context. This is not a long-term revolution but a short, sharp attempt to stabilise United and push them back into the Champions League places.

In that sense, Amad’s AFCON form could hardly be better timed.

Carrick knows the club, understands the weight of expectation, and is unlikely to be seduced by novelty for its own sake. He also knows, from his own playing days, the value of footballers who can decide matches rather than merely fit systems.

The obvious starting point is to use Amad properly.

As a right winger who wants to come inside, he offers United a different profile to their more direct wide players. His close control allows him to operate between the lines, linking midfield to attack, while his finishing has improved to the point where defenders cannot simply show him inside and hope for the best.

The selection conundrum, of course, then is Bryan Mbeumo.

United’s £71 million summer signing also prefers to operate from the right, driving infield to shoot or combine. Carrick will have to solve that puzzle quickly, because benching one of them indefinitely is not a solution for a team chasing points.

Yet framing it as a problem risks missing the opportunity. Amad’s AFCON performances have shown that he can be more than a touchline winger. He has played as a focal point, dropping into pockets, dragging defenders with him and allowing runners to exploit the space he creates.

United have often looked blunt through the middle this season, too reliant on individual moments rather than sustained pressure. Giving Amad licence to roam, to become the connective tissue of the attack rather than a fixed wide outlet, could elevate the whole unit.

Mbeumo, for all his strengths, is more comfortable stretching teams vertically; the two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

There is also a psychological element. Players return from successful tournaments taller, surer of themselves.

Amad will come back from AFCON knowing he has been one of the competition’s standout performers, trusted by his national side to deliver under pressure. United’s squad has sometimes looked fragile, confidence draining away at the first sign of adversity.

Injecting a player riding that kind of momentum is no small thing. Carrick would be wise to harness it rather than dampen it with caution.

Critics will point to Amad’s inconsistency at club level, to the flashes rather than the sustained runs of form. That is fair, up to a point. But opportunity and role matter. It is difficult to build rhythm when you are in and out of the side, or when you are asked to perform tasks that do not suit your instincts.

AFCON has provided a controlled experiment: put Amad in his best position, give him responsibility and see what happens. What happened was three goals, an assist and a reminder of why United invested in him in the first place.

The race for Champions League qualification will not be decided by theory. It will be decided by moments, by players who can turn tight games. United do not need Amad to be perfect; they need him to be decisive.

His AFCON heroics suggest he is ready for that burden.

Carrick’s time at United may prove to be brief, but it could be defined by bold choices. Trusting Amad Diallo to be more than a peripheral figure looks less like a gamble now and more like common sense.

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