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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Steven Railston

Alejandro Garnacho has six attackers as competition for Manchester United training camp in Spain

Manchester United's players have become well accustomed to visits to Spain with Erik ten Hag in charge at Old Trafford.

United stayed over in San Sebastian after losing to Real Sociedad in the Europa League last month and they trained using Deportivo Alaves' facilities before flying back to Manchester.

The passports have been brought out again at Carrington this week and United have flown to Spain for another visit, with Ten Hag taking his side to a training camp, to prepare for friendlies against Cadiz on Wednesday and Real Betis on Saturday.

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United return to domestic action against Burnley in the Round of 16 of the Carabao Cup on December 21 and the training camp in Spain is a change of scenery for the players ahead of the congested festive period, which is a demanding period.

The obvious caveat is the majority of the first-team is currently playing at the World Cup in Qatar. Christian Eriksen and Facundo Pellistri have exited the competition at the first hurdle, but there are still 13 players representing United at the tournament and that has seen the travelling squad for Spain become a defacto academy trip with many Under-21 players included.

Victor Lindelof, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Donny van de Beek, Scott McTominay, Anthony Martial and Anthony Elanga are the only senior outfield players that have travelled to Spain and they're greatly outnumbered by players born after the year 2000.

The majority of the team that extended the club's history in the FA Youth Cup last season have travelled to Spain and the friendly matches represent a rare opportunity for players such as Kobbie Mainoo, Dan Gore and Isak Hansen-Aaroen to make a mark.

Ten Hag watched United's U21s play West Ham at Altrincham in September and he was joined by assistant Mitchell Van der Gaag that night, but the Spain training camp will allow him to coach and assess the youngsters without other distractions.

The experience of working so closely with Ten Hag will be invaluable for the young players and the desire in training will certainly not be lacking, as they have a small window of opportunity to make sure the manager knows about their qualities.

The youngsters will be desperate to impress and Alejandro Garnacho will be viewed as an example among his academy peers. Garnacho only celebrated his 18th birthday in July but he's already shown the potential to become peerless.

The winger was talismanic in the Youth Cup campaign last season, contributing seven goals and three assists in that competition, and he's made a significant breakthrough to the first-team in recent weeks with electric performances that have demanded attention.

Garnacho has made sure he can't be ignored. He was excellent against FC Sheriff and Real Sociedad, who he scored against, in the Europa League and his expertly-taken goal against Fulham before the break suggested he could be something special.

His pace is problematic for defenders and his composure in front of goal is excellent for someone who could only legally buy alcohol this year. It seems United have unearthed another gem but he'll need to work hard to deliver on his promise.

Ten Hag and Bruno Fernandes have admitted Garnacho's attitude was unsatisfactory at the start of the season and the player has already changed that, to his credit. The next challenge for Garnacho is to sustain committed training performances, which will lead to more success on the pitch and to him gaining more trust from Ten Hag.

Garnacho will feel at home around the youthful squad for the training camp in Spain, as the players are mostly around his age, but he should be able to stand out from that crowd and that will be his target this week: consolidate his first-team status.

There are six other attackers, Martial, Elanga, Shola Shoretire, Joe Hugill, Charlie McNeill and Noam Emeran, in the training camp and Garnacho has the talent to train and perform the best from that list, which would be quite the statement.

The Argentine has the chance to show he's ahead of his teammates in the academy and Martial and Elanga. Garnacho is set for a prominent role for the remainder of the season and he can help assert himself in the first-team pecking order in Spain.

Garnacho was born in Madrid and he'll be enjoying every minute of the camp.

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