Alejandro Garnacho shines as Man United beat Rangers amid Chelsea links | OneFootball

Alejandro Garnacho was M,Anin a decent performance at Old Trafford as Manchester United beat Rangers 2-1 in the Europa League amid doubts surrounding his future.

Man United went into the Battle of Britain already assured of their spot in the knockout stages of the Europa League. All that was left to do is bolster their chances of automatic qualification to the last 16.

The win has Man United up to fourth, two points clear of ninth-placed Galatasaray going into next week’s final day. The Red Devils’ form in the Europa League has been the antithesis of their struggles in the Premier League, with Ruben Amorim’s men really enjoying their time in the competition.

Man United have now won their past four Europa League games, securing the victory over Rangers thanks to Bruno Fernandes’ late winner. And it was a good night for Garnacho too.

With just over a week to go in the January transfer window, Garnacho’s Man United future is in doubt. According to reports, Chelsea have heavy interest in the Argentine and want to sign him this month.

Those reports suggest that Garnacho is currently unsure about his future at Man United, having fallen out of favour slightly under Amorim. And so the 20-year-old is reluctantly looking elsewhere to continue his development.

This was Amorim’s 16th game in charge of Man United, with Garnacho making his seventh start under the Portuguese manager. During that time, Garnacho has one goal and one assist. But he was arguably Man United’s best player in their narrow win over Rangers.

Garnacho was a constant thorn in Ridvan Yilmaz’s side throughout the night. The Turkish wing-back will probably be having nightmares about Garnacho taking him on for months. Garnacho attempted seven take-ons over the course of the match, more than any other player for either team. He completed three of those, again the most of any player.

He also finished joint-top among Man United players for total duels and duels won, winning six of his 13 contested. Again, Yilmaz will have been on the losing end of a lot of those duels, winning just one of the six he contested.

In front of goal, Garnacho was the Man United player testing Butland he most. He had five shots and two efforts on target, more than any Man United player for either metric. The Argentine posted an Expected Goals total of 0.58 and really should have scored, with his best effort hitting the post on the hour mark.

Garnacho led Man United for touches in the opposition box too, with two more than second-placed Amad Diallo. He was also fouled twice, proving tough to stop.

The one area Garnacho didn’t lead in terms of attacking metrics was chance creation. But he still managed to create one chance and put two crosses into the box.

It wasn’t a performance that went unnoticed from the Man United fans either. At various points on the night the Old Trafford faithful were serenading Garnacho, who they very clearly do not want to leave.