'Not good enough' - Ten Hag blasts Man Utd wonderkid despite goal

Stuart Telford

• 28 Sept 2023 09:49 BST
• 3 min read

Alejandro Garnacho opened the scoring as Manchester United beat Crystal Palace 3-0 in the EFL Cup on Wednesday, but Erik ten Hag thinks the youngster still has work to do.

Garnacho was handed his third start of the season against Palace, and celebrated with his first goal of the campaign, steering the ball beyond Sam Johnstone after Diogo Dalot's cutback.

The Madrid-born Argentina international clearly carries a goal-threat - he hit six goals and six assists at a rate of one every 120 minutes last season - but his playing time has nonetheless been restricted this term.

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Ten Hag rates the 19-year-old, but doesn't think he's the finished product quite yet.

"You have seen at the start of the season we played him and then his contribution was not good enough," he admitted after the game. "…but I think it is quite normal for a player of his age that there is space for a lot of improvement."

Garnacho chance

There should be plenty of space for Garnacho is United's XI this season. Fellow wide men Antony and Mason Greenwood have been excluded amid accusations about their personal lives, with the latter now on loan at Getafe, while Jadon Sancho has been dropped.

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Ten Hag called the former Borussia Dortmund man out for his attitude in training, Sancho responded on social media before deleting his post, and he hasn't been named in a matchday squad since.

Ten Hag doesn't anticipate any such trouble with Garnacho.

"Everyone likes him, the fans like him, the team likes him, I like him," he said. "But we also have to demand from him and push him because he can act on a very high level but he has to show it every day."

Garnacho is valued at €11.3 million by FootballTransfers' in-house algorithm, and is under contract at Old Trafford until 30 June 2028.