Alejandro Garnacho has been spoken to by Erik ten Hag after the Manchester United winger liked tweets that criticised his half-time substitution at Bournemouth and suggested he had been “thrown under the bus” by the head coach.
Garnacho quickly removed his likes on the two messages, which the club believe shows contrition, and any further action will be decided internally.
The Argentinian was withdrawn on Saturday with United losing 2-1; they eventually drew 2-2 after Bruno Fernandes scored a second-half penalty. Garnacho had given the ball away for the first goal scored by Dominic Solanke, and Justin Kluivert’s second came down United’s right, but he also provided the assist for Fernandes’s first before being replaced by Amad Diallo.
Two tweets from the United YouTuber, Mark Goldbridge, who has more than 800,000 followers, were liked by Garnacho’s account. One read: “Ten Hag subtly blaming Garnacho in the post match press conference … not a good look throwing a 19 year old under the bus who has actually delivered for you this season. But then again he’s clearly scared of upsetting the bigger earners.”
The other said Garnacho had played poorly but that “taking him off at half time and holding him up as the problem is a joke”.
Garnacho was unwell last week and had been unable to take part in every training session but did train the day before the match. Asked why Garnacho was taken off, Ten Hag said: “I think we had to repair over the right side. We didn’t play well, the spaces were there. In possession, we had to bring a sub there. Garnacho was during the week not training. Only yesterday [Friday]. We thought bring some energy and bring some more quality; quality in the sense of cooperation and togetherness on that right-hand side.”
Garnacho has become a key player under Ten Hag, starting the previous 30 matches, but has been substituted in the past four. He has scored nine goals and provided four assists this season for United, who sit seventh in the Premier League.
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It is not the first time Ten Hag has had to deal with a situation that has arisen on social media. The Dutchman banished Jadon Sancho from the first team after the winger described comments about him from Ten Hag as “completely untrue” in September.