Ian Wright insists that Alejandro Garnacho is a “massive problem” for everybody he faces and will only improve as Man Utd become less “chaotic”.
The 19-year-old has nailed down a regular place in Erik ten Hag’s side this season after making just five starts in the previous campaign at Old Trafford.

Garnacho has made 38 appearances in all competitions this campaign, contributing seven goals and three assists in the process.
The Argentina international played a key role as Man Utd beat Liverpool 4-3 before the international break, providing the assist for Amad Diallo’s dramatic extra-time winner.
And Wright thinks there is a lot more to come from the winger, the Arsenal legend told the Ringer FC podcast: “I need to mention Garnacho because he is a massive problem for everybody.
“In spells and in moments during that game he was doing some unbelievable things. I thought it was a very impressive performance in a massive game for him, especially considering his age.
READ MORE: Transfer gossip: Man Utd get Rodrygo update while eyeing ‘bargain’ Casemiro replacement
“As soon as they get the structure right around him he can start to learn more and know where he needs to be in a game because at the moment it’s so chaotic in there.
Related video: How much pressure is falling on Erik ten Hag at Manchester United? (Dailymotion)

“But if that happens then we’re really going to see the best of him, we really are.”
Former Arsenal and Southampton winger Theo Walcott has praised Garnacho for his “arrogance” and called the youngster a “beautiful player”.
Walcott added: “The thing about Garnacho which I always like, he always gets into spaces where it’s hard to pick him up. He makes runs off the ball, but not just that, it’s his end product as well and the passion that we see.
“He’s always available for the ball. And what I like about him, he’s always positive, every time he gets the ball. It’s a generation of inverted wingers, but he likes to go on the outside, which I really enjoy. He’s always keeping the full-back guessing. He always manages to create so much space for himself.
“He’s always in demand, always wants the ball. He’s got that sort of arrogance about himself to try things too. Even in the 120th minute he can still do it. And not just that, he seemed to run faster and faster with the ball.
“I feel like he’s got the veins of a Manchester United player. He’s a beautiful player.”
READ MORE: Man Utd fans in Mailbox do not want ‘negative clown’ Gareth Southgate

Rasmus Hojlund backs unhappy Man Utd star after private talks with Erik ten Hag

Rasmus Hojlund has sympathised with Christian Eriksen after the Manchester United midfielder expressed his frustration over a lack of game time.
Eriksen, 32, has fallen down the pecking order following the emergence of the prodigious Kobbie Mainoo and has been forced to settle for a place on the bench in recent weeks.


The Denmark international has featured for just 37 minutes across United's last seven league matches and was benched again for last weekend's epic FA Cup triumph over Liverpool, appearing only as a late substitute.
The veteran midfielder is currently away on international duty but revealed he has spoken to Erik ten Hag over his concerns, explaining to Tipsbladet: "I have had a conversation with Erik about being unhappy with the situation and wanting to play as much as possible, but I am available and need to be available for the team, which I am and always will be.
“He said it was the team he had chosen, and Kobbie is doing well and the rest of the midfield is also performing well, so there is competition for places, which is expected when playing for a top club. There is great competition within the team.
While Eriksen has stressed that the current situation is not "keeping him up at night", his United team-mate and compatriot, Hojlund, has sent his support to the playmaker.
Related video: Why Manchester United Could Be Banned From Next Season's Champions League (Dailymotion)

The 21-year-old striker has drawn on his own experiences, telling TV2: “I myself have sat on the bench for FC Copenhagen, so I know what that means. But he holds his head high and he is a class player. There is absolutely no doubt about that.
Join the debate! Do you think Eriksen should be playing more for United? Let us know here.
Christian Eriksen of Manchester United
© Marc Atkins/Getty Images
“There is no concern at all from me about it. Of course, you want to play football. And I’m sure he does too. [But] he trains well and is still very positive and very helpful, so it’s not a big deal. [Eriksen is] a real professional."
Mainoo's emergence has also impacted Casemiro's standing at Old Trafford. Like Eriksen, Casemiro has played significantly less this season, although he's also been plagued by injuries.

It's expected that the veteran midfielder will be one of the players made available for transfer this summer. Mirror Football revealed on Thursday that Wolves' holding midfielder Joao Gomes has been identified by Ineos as a long-term replacement for Casemiro if United can find a buyer for him in the summer transfer window.
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Another Liverpool coup confirmed by Fabrizio Romano, but ruthless triple exit takes shape

Liverpool have an agreement in place to poach another key figure from Bournemouth, though a report claims a triple exit from the playing personnel is on the cards.
The Reds were successful with their last-ditch attempt to re-hire Michael Edwards earlier this month. Edwards has returned to the club in a greater position of power and now serves as FSG’s overarching CEO of Football.
Among Edwards’ first tasks back in the fold was to finalise the agreement that has brought Richard Hughes to Liverpool.
Hughes, 44, worked wonders as the sporting director at Bournemouth and left the Cherries in early-March ahead of agreeing a deal with Liverpool. Hughes will officially begin his new post at Liverpool on June 1.
However, according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, the upheaval behind the scenes has not stopped there.
Taking to X, the trusted reporter revealed Liverpool have also poached Bournemouth’s chief scout, Mark Burchill.
“Mark Burchill will follow Richard Hughes to Liverpool,” began Romano. “It’s all decided for Bournemouth chief scout to join Liverpool.
“It will be signed soon but agreement’s already in place. Edwards, Hughes and Burchill will be part of the new structure.”
READ MORE: Fabrizio Romano drops bombshell on potential Liverpool sale of superstar forward
Related video: Liverpool injury latest: Who’s nearing return for the Reds? (Dailymotion)

Details on Mark Burchill

Burchill, 43, is a former teammate of Hughes during their playing days at Portsmouth in the early 2000s.
The Scot had a brief stint in management with Livingston between 2014-15, though it’s as a scout where he’s truly made his mark since hanging up his boots.
Burchill has been heralded for identifying a series of successful signing Hughes would go on to make for Bournemouth, including the likes of Nathan Ake, Phillip Billing and David Brooks.
Hughes and Burchill were also behind Bournemouth’s decision to sign Dominic Solanke from Liverpool back in 2019.
ICYMI: Treble winner and £3m bargain among best Richard Hughes deals at Bournemouth
Solanke was widely viewed as a Reds flop at the time, though the gamble paid off for the Cherries with Solanke firing them back into the top flight in the 2021/22 campaign and notching an impressive 15 goals in the Premier League so far this season.

Per the Telegraph, Burchill will slot into Liverpool’s well established recruitment team that includes chief scout Barry Hunter and head of recruitment Dave Fallows.

Hughes to axe Liverpool trio

Appointing Jurgen Klopp’s successor is on the agenda next for Edwards and Hughes.
The overwhelming favourite to replace the legendary German is Xabi Alonso and TEAMtalk previously revealed positive talks have already taken place. Furthermore, a three-year deal has been put on the table.
However, according to Football Insider, three current Liverpool stars may have already left by the time Alonso – or whoever replaces Klopp – steps through the door.
FI stated Hughes has already determined Liverpool should not sanction new contracts for Adrian, Joel Matip and Thiago Alcantara. All three are out of contract in the summer and are in line to leave as free agents.
The trio are aged 37, 32 and 32 respectively. Adrian is third choice behind Alisson and Caoimhin Kelleher, while Matip will turn 33 in the summer and will be coming off the back of ACL surgery.

If Matip’s time is up, he’ll be fondly remembered on Merseyside for years to come and will go down as one of the greatest free agent signings in both Liverpool’s and Premier League history.
Thiago, meanwhile, will net the club a huge saving in wages when departing. The classy Spaniard has never let Liverpool down when on the field, though injuries have severely restricted his minutes for the Reds.
DON’T MISS: Hughes given easy first signing, with Liverpool the ‘dream’ club for top Eredivisie star

Is Kobbie Mainoo a Defoe, a Mawson, or a Gardner? England bolters have a grim record

Kobbie Mainoo has emerged as an absolutely textbook England major tournament bolter with his call-up to Gareth Southgate’s latest England squad, his final one before it all gets serious again this summer.
So let’s have a look at how similar bolters have fared ahead of major tournaments in the past, yeah? Pretty simple rules here: uncapped players named in the last in-season squad before the tournament. So usually we’re talking squads named around about this time of year, apart from the Qatar ridiculousness. Cool? Cool.
 
April 2002 – Matt Jansen
The England squad selected for a 4-0 win over Paraguay is dominated by the birth of a legend. A week before the game, three days before Sven-Goran Eriksson names a 25-man squad and 51 days until the World Cup begins, David Beckham is given a booting by Deportivo La Coruna’s Pedro Duscher in a Champions League quarter-final. His foot is bruised and bleeding.
The following day, an X-ray confirms he has broken the second metatarsal in his left foot. “What the f**k is a metatarsal?” asks a confused and concerned nation that will never again have to ask that question and is about to embark on a period of widespread collective insanity.
Tabloid front pages encouraged readers to pray for the injury to recover. It was the biggest story in town from that moment until Beckham, whose narrative arc appeared to have been completed with that crucial goal against Greece, was confirmed fit and would complete the actual end of this particular redemption story with the winning penalty against Argentina after a genuinely hilarious dive from Michael Owen. Then he jumped out of the way of a tackle in the build-up to a Brazil goal in the quarter-final. Was he thinking about his half-healed foot? We’ll never know. What we do know is that the man who initially benefited from Beckham’s injury was, to general surprise, Blackburn’s Matt Jansen.
Related video: Aaron-Wooi Yik enter All England semis in style but Zii Jia goes down fighting (Dailymotion)

A stomach bug forced him to withdraw from the squad and, despite being measured for his suit, he was omitted from the final 23 for Japan and Korea. Jansen suffered a devastating motorcycle accident in Rome that summer from which his career tragically never truly recovered.
READ: Ranking England’s major tournament home kits as the lovely Euro 2024 effort drops
 
March 2004 – Jermain Defoe, Anthony Gardner, Robert Green, JLloyd Samuel, Alan Thompson, Shaun Wright-Phillips
A genuinely maverick Sven-Goran Eriksson squad named for a friendly in Sweden contained not only six uncapped players among its 26 names but a further nine with 10 or fewer England appearances.
When Beckham withdrew through injury, the most experienced international left in the group was…Gareth Southgate with 56 caps. England Ladder fans will be delighted to note that Phil Neville was second with 45.


Let’s rattle through the newbies, anyway. Defoe, obviously, had a perfectly competent England career, but a frustrating one with regard to major tournaments. An overall record of 20 goals from 57 caps certainly isn’t shabby, but when the big tournaments came around he was nearly always a standby, only occasionally a squad player, and rarely much involved.
He didn’t make it to Euro 2004, stay tuned for some 2006 oddness, would definitely have gone to Euro 2008 had England bothered to qualify, did go to the 2010 World Cup and scored against Slovenia, and then in what would prove his tournament swansong got a grand total of 13 minutes at Euro 2012. He was a standby again in 2014, meaning he’d been a standby player in more tournaments than he was actually picked for. Given his numbers over an England career spanning 13 years, it all feels a bit unlucky.

Shaun Wright-Phillips comes next on the list in terms of overall caps but a similar story, with his 29 England caps across a six-year span taking him to just one major tournament in 2010.
Rob Green was an unused sub in Gothenburg, didn’t make the Euros squad and had to wait until May 2005 to finally make his debut.
He was forced off the 2006 World Cup standby list through injury, did start England’s first game of the 2010 World Cup but probably wishes he hadn’t, and sat on the bench throughout Euro 2012 having by that time already won his 12th and it would turn out final cap in a pre-tournament warm-up against Norway.
Alan Thompson and Anthony Gardner both made debuts in that Sweden game in March 2004 but were never seen or heard of again for England, while JLloyd Samuel didn’t even get that honour.
 
February/March 2006 – Darren Bent Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney are Sven-Goran Eriksson’s clear first-choice strikers ahead of his second and last World Cup in charge of England, with Peter Crouch earmarked as first reserve/point of difference from the bench. An injury to Owen offered a chance to in-form Charlton striker Darren Bent in the squad for a friendly against Uruguay, setting up what appears to be a shootout with Tottenham’s Jermain Defoe for the fourth and final place in the squad.

Bent starts against Uruguay, with Crouch and Defoe coming off the bench as England come from 1-0 down to win 2-1. Crouch, wearing the number 21 on the front of his shirt and shorts but 12 on the back for some reason, scores a 75th-minute equaliser before Joe Cole gets the winner deep into injury time.
Then, come May, when Eriksson has to name his World Cup squad, he leaves Bent out altogether, pops Defoe on a standby list and decides to pick a 17-year-old Theo Walcott who has yet to make a Premier League appearance for Arsenal.
“I only decided finally this morning,” chortles a demob-happy Eriksson at the announcement of the squad, which also includes a very first call-up for Tottenham teenager Aaron Lennon which while still a gamble is at least one based on some available first-team evidence.
Asked how he made the decision to pick Walcott over Bent or Defoe, Eriksson said: “Probably not too logically. Sometimes you do it on feelings as well and I am excited about Theo Walcott.”
Walcott was taking his driving theory test when the announcement was made. He passed.
 
February/March 2010 – Ryan Shawcross, Stephen Warnock, Leighton Baines With a laser-guided piece of timing, Shawcross is named in Fabio Capello’s squad for a friendly against Egypt literally hours after being sent off for snapping Aaron Ramsey in half with one of the Premier League’s most infamous challenges. Having left the pitch in tears at what he’d done, Shawcross at least ended the day with some good news.
He was joined in the group by fellow uncapped duo Stephen Warnock and Leighton Baines, who found themselves in direct competition for the all-important role of understudy to undisputed first-choice left-back Ashley Cole after Wayne Bridge announced his international retirement.
Warnock would ultimately win that battle and in the process become the scourge of Sporcle quizzers from that day until the end of days.
As for Shawcross, he was an unused substitute against Egypt and had to wait until November 2012 to finally make his long-awaited England debut. He came off the bench with 16 minutes remaining of a friendly against Sweden that Roy Hodgson’s side were leading 2-1. Sixteen minutes and three Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals later – including a ludicrous 30-yard overhead kick – Sweden have won 4-2 and Shawcross’ England career had, in his own words, “ended before it started”.
READ FROM 2016: Five recent England players who will stay on one cap
 
February 2012 – Fraizer Campbell, Tom Cleverley
Bit of a red herring this one, given it was Stuart Pearce’s one and only England squad in the Capello-Hodgson interregnum. Still, though: not great. Neither Campbell nor Cleverley made it to the Euros anyway.
Campbell’s one and only England call-up did at least yield a cap for a 10-minute cameo off the bench in England’s 3-2 defeat to the Netherlands, while Cleverley – who had first been called up the year before – would be forced to withdraw from the squad and wouldn’t win the first of his 13 caps until England’s ‘revenge’ win over Italy in August.
Improbably, this began a run of nine starts in a row for Cleverley as Roy Hodgson decided, really quite wrongly, that he was a number 10. Further caps came in the autumn of 2013, but by the time of the 2014 World Cup, Cleverley was only on the standby list. Where he would remain. He sat unused on the bench a couple more times the following summer before the end of his England journey.
 
February/March 2014 – Luke Shaw
Arguably the most successful uncapped player to emerge from these squads. One of only three men to score for England in a major tournament final, Shaw got his first call-up as an 18-year-old Southampton prodigy for a March friendly against Denmark as Roy Hodgson finalised his plans for England’s ill-fated trip to Brazil.
It was a slight surprise, not because Shaw’s form for Saints didn’t merit international recognition. It was more the fact Cole and Baines were also there, meaning Shaw’s presence made it three left-backs in a squad that also contained only three recognised centre-backs. And those three centre-backs were Gary Cahill, Steven Caulker and Chris Smalling.
Shaw was ultimately named in Hodgson’s final 23 for Brazil along with Baines, prompting the end of Cole’s England career.
Nineteen-year-old Liverpool winger Raheem Sterling also earned a recall to Hodgson’s squad to face Denmark having made his debut 17 months earlier in the Shawcross-Zlatan Game. There’s frankly a whole story to tell about the six players who debuted for England that night in Stockholm: Shawcross, Sterling, Leon Osman, Caulker, Carl Jenkinson and Wilfried Zaha.
Man Utd defender Luke Shaw gives the thumbs up
© Provided by Football365
 
March 2016 – Danny Drinkwater, Tom Heaton, Danny Rose
Danny Drinkwater! What a time March 2016 truly was. Back then, Drinkwater was not only getting an England call but was also an integral part of a Leicester side conkers deep in an unlikely quest for Premier League glory.
He was on the bench for the friendly against Germany but started three days later against the Netherlands and was then named in Roy Hodgson’s provisional 26-man Euros squad. He featured in the first two warm-up games, but was then one of the unfortunates cut from the final squad.
Drinkwater did sit on the bench for the entirety of the Sam Allardyce era, and was retained in Gareth Southgate’s first England squad that November. Drinkwater withdrew and that was the end of his England career.
Danny Rose, meanwhile, briefly became a pretty key member of the squad. He’d actually first been called up in September 2014 and again in March 2015 without earning a cap, but he was soon involved this time around, starting both friendlies, two of the three pre-tournament friendlies and three of England’s four games at the tournament. Rose would remain in and around the squad for the next three years, and featured in five of England’s seven games at the 2018 World Cup. His total of 29 England caps puts him comfortably among the top bracket for uncapped pre-tournament call-ups.
Joe Hart’s withdrawal from the squad through injury earned Burnley keeper Tom Heaton another call-up after sitting on the bench for England the previous summer and throughout the September, October and November international breaks in 2015.
He would make his debut in the closing stages of a 2-1 win over Australia in a Euro 2016 warm-up game, and sat on the bench throughout England’s assorted shamblings around France that summer. He would win further caps against Spain later that year and France the following summer.
 
March 2018 – Alfie Mawson, Lewis Cook, Nick Pope, James Tarkowski
It would be easy reading all this to think that England were something of a shambles until Gareth Southgate came along with his calm and logical thinking that, no matter what your views on his often pedestrian and staid brand of sufferball, has at least provided England with some consistency and brought an end to this sort of late pre-tournament chaos.
And then you look at a squad three months before the 2018 World Cup and see James Tarkowski, Lewis Cook and – what, wait, Alfie Mawson?
Yes. Alfie Mawson was among four uncapped players named for March friendlies against the Netherlands and Italy, neatly mirroring England’s current squad with its uncapped quartet of Jarrad Branthwaite, Anthony Gordon, Ezri Konsa and Mainoo. With all due respect, we don’t anticipate any of them retiring in five years’ time after a couple of seasons at Wycombe.
Cook, meanwhile, had in fact been called up the previous year for a friendly against Brazil and earned his one and (so far?) only cap against Italy before being named on the five-man standby list when Southgate’s World Cup squad was confirmed. Tarkowski played in both games before joining Cook on the standby list, only for a hernia operation to rule him out altogether.
Pope would of course still be very much in the picture were it not for injury, despite never having managed to unseat Jordan Pickford as Southgate’s first choice. Easy to forget now, though, just how murky the England goalkeeper situation was before that World Cup.
There were four goalkeepers in the March squad, with the experience and leadership qualities of Joe Hart seeing him retain his place despite the collapse of his club form.
Hart wouldn’t make it to Russia in the end, Southgate instead preferring to select three keepers in his final squad who mustered only 12 caps between them. And eight of those were Jack Butland’s. England’s opening game of the World Cup against Tunisia was Jordan Pickford’s fourth cap, which seems really quite mad now.
 
March 2021 – Sam Johnstone
An injury to Jordan Pickford opened the door for West Brom’s Johnstone to earn his first call-up. Was unused in those three games at the end of March but made his debut just before the Euros against Romania and sat on the bench throughout England’s run to the final.
West Brom’s relegation between his first call-up and first cap obviously didn’t help, but he remained a squad staple during the following season, before regaining his squad place last summer after a move to Crystal Palace, which of course comes with a lifetime guarantee of being in lower mid-table for ever and ever and thus Johnstone’s England squad place is secure for ever and ever.
 
September 2022 – Ivan Toney
A different timeline, sure, but Toney’s early-season exploits with Brentford earned him a place in Southgate’s squad for Nations League games against Italy and Germany that fulfilled the pre-tournament role historically taken by March friendlies.
He made it as far as the bench for the second of those games, a chaotic 3-3 draw with Germany, but lost out to Callum Wilson in the end for the coveted Harry Kane Understudy squad place.
Belatedly made his debut the following March as an 81st-minute substitute in a Euro qualifying win against Ukraine at Wembley, and is now back in the squad for the first time since serving an eight-month ban for betting offences.
That this all adds up to one of the better outcomes for an England squad bolter is really quite something.