Former England World Cup fullback Danny Mills says Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag deserves the credit for Diogo Dalot's improvement this season.

With his contract running down, Dalot has shown career best form under Ten Hag, proving himself among United's outstanding performers so far this term.

For Mills, Ten Hag's influence on the Portugal international is obvious and he can see Dalot finally solving a long time positional issue for United.

Speaking with Tribalfootball.com on behalf of OLBG, Mills said: "I think Manchester United have struggled in the fullback areas for some time really.

"Right back has been an issue for a long time, they haven't been able to really nail down that position.

"I know (Aaron) Wan-Bissaka came in, but it's never really worked out and left-back has been an issue at times as well.

"When Dalot came in as a youngster there was a lot of potential there and sometimes it can take time to settle and work things out.

"It takes time for people to mature and now we're starting to see a player who had huge quality which is why he was brought to Manchester United in the first place.

"You don't go to these big clubs unless you're a good player.

"But now he's starting to understand the game better and understand his defensive role better.

"I think a lot of that will come down to Ten Hag, when you looked at the work he did at Ajax his philosophy was let's work on the individuals."

Mills says the training ground work of Ten Hag and his staff is rubbing off on Dalot.

Asked by Tribalfootball.com to give us a technical appraisal of where Dalot has improved this season, the former Manchester City defender said: "It's a little bit like the work we've seen in the past with someone like Sir Clive Woodward in rugby.

"If you make all the individuals 10% better, then you end up making the team 20-25% better because of that result.

"That seems to me what Ten Hag is working on, he wants to improve individuals, work on their weaknesses and give them a better understanding of the game.

"I think because of that it's helping to improve Dalot. The principles of being a good defender is hard, it's mainly about being in the right position. You don't really have to tackle in this day and age, it's about delaying, positioning yourself on the pitch and anticipating danger.

"You can work on that; you can go through analysis and all the videos and work on it on the training ground. All these small details make a huge difference and it's a credit to Dalot that he's clearly listening to the coaches and allowing himself to become a better player.

"It's working for him and he's becoming a big part of this Manchester United team at the moment."