Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes is seeing his comparisons between Cristiano Ronaldo and Alejandro Garnacho proved right as the Argentine youngster continues to show his quality.
Garnacho, 18, was given his debut last season by Ralf Rangnick. He has taken it up a notch this term under Erik ten Hag, however, and scored his third senior goal over the weekend as United claimed a 2-0 victory over Leeds.
Retired midfielder Scholes played with Ronaldo when the Portugal international was a teenager and watched him grow into a Ballon d'Or winner at Old Trafford. The ex-England international saw parallels between Ronaldo and Garnacho in October, and the latter has only improved further in the months since.
“This crowd loves entertainment and he provided that tonight," Scholes told BT Sport in October (via the MEN ) after United's Europa League group stage victory over Sheriff. Garnacho was making his first senior start in the game, which Ten Hag's team won 3-0.
“He almost reminded me of a young Cristiano with his skill and taking the ball down with confidence," the pundit continued. "I was impressed with the way he could attack on both feet and the unpredictability.
“He is an 18-year-old kid and he has a big future at Manchester United," Scholes added. Sure enough, Garnacho scored his first United goal in his very next appearance - a winner against Real Sociedad in the same competition - before opening his Premier League account with a late winner against Fulham.
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Garnacho only played the final half an hour of Sunday's game at Elland Road, coming off the bench to replace Jadon Sancho. However, after Marcus Rashford's header put the visitors in front, he made the points safe five minutes from time.
The victory briefly took United above neighbours Manchester City and into second place in the Premier League table. That didn't last for long, though, with City beating Aston Villa 3-1 in the day's later game.
United's weekend win saw a reverse of the game at home to Leeds a few days earlier. On that occasion, Garnacho started and Sancho came off the bench to score, and manager Ten Hag explained there are still some things the 18-year-old needs to work on.
“We saw on Wednesday he was making great actions but not finishing," the former Ajax boss said.. "I think he had to finish in that moment. It has to do with focus but also with preparation.
"Today it was the same. In the first minutes, he was not in the game and you have to be ready. After the first goal he improved and showed his great skills, his pace, his dribbles, his timing and it was a great finish too.”
