Bruno Fernandes warns Alejandro Garnacho after meteoric Man Utd rise

Bruno Fernandes has hailed Alejandro Garnacho's 'game changing' ability for Manchester United but also warned that he must 'do much better than he's currently doing' to fulfil his potential.

The 18-year-old returned to action in the 2-0 win over Wolves on Saturday, climbing off the bench in the final ten minutes to score a superb goal on the counter.

That was Garnacho's fifth goal of what has been impressive debut campaign in United's first team - the Argentine's progress was recently rewarded with a new five-year contract running until the summer of 2028.

Garnacho is viewed as one of United's most promising talents but was challenged by Erik ten Hag to raise the bar even higher when he signed his new deal - sentiments Fernandes, who pocketed the assist for the teenager's goal against Wolves, has shared.

“We know Garna can change games,” Fernandes said. “He plays with pace, he can take players one against one, but he’s still developing, so we don’t have to push too much on him. He can do great things, but in the future, he has to do much better than he is actually doing, because he has the capabilities to be even better.

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“Mentally he is being much better also and I think he understands what it takes to be a professional player. He is taking that and he is working a lot also in the gym with the coaches. He’s been doing amazingly for the first season he’s been playing in the Premier League, with more minutes, with more consistency, he’s doing great, but we all know he can do much for us.”

“We are really pleased for Garna, because it was a long time that he was out of competition,” Fernandes added of his comeback goal. “Obviously, for a young player, it’s never easy. But he’s back, he scored a goal and I hope he can score much more until the end of the season.”

The win at the weekend strengthened United's grip on fourth place and the final Champions League qualifying spot. Liverpool are in hot pursuit, sitting four points behind after a fantastic run of recent form, while Brighton can't be ruled out of the race just yet - they bagged a superb 3-0 win over Arsenal on Sunday to continue their stellar progress under Roberto De Zerbi, all but ending the Gunners' hopes of a first Premier League title win in 19 years.

Man Utd's recent form & remaining fixtures

United's last six games in all competitions has seen them win just twice in 90 minutes - they also edged past Brighton in the FA Cup semi-finals on penalties.

Three games remain for United in the Premier League, all of which they will fancy picking up three points in.

A trip to the south coast to face Bournemouth is up next before struggling Chelsea travel to Old Trafford for their final road game under caretaker boss Frank Lampard. Fulham round off the season in terms of Premier League matters, with a heavyweight FA Cup final against neighbourhood rivals City locked in for 3 June.

On this edition of The Promised Land, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders and Rob Blanchette previewed Man Utd's Premier League with Wolves, the recent dip in form and whether Erik ten Hag must shoulder the responsibility for recent defeats.

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