Paul Scholes believes Lionel Messi could have been the reason behind Alejandro Garnacho's attitude problem at Man United

Former Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes has made the claim that playing with Lionel Messi led to an attitude problem for Alejandro Garnacho.

This comments came following the 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad in the Europa League, a goal scored by the 18-year-old, who impressed on the night.

That was his first senior goal for the club and it was a brilliantly taken goal following a good through ball from Cristiano Ronaldo.

Whilst it was another good win for Erik ten Hag's side, they finished second in their EL group behind the Spanish side and now run the risk of facing Barcelona or Juventus in the next round.

For Garnacho, there had been claims of an attitude problem, stemming from the start of the season that were confirmed by Bruno Fernandes in his post-match interview last night.

Scholes also jumped on this point, as he pointed towards a poor start to the season that has since been turned around by the young United forward.

Seemingly, he was quick to point towards Garnacho's experiences with the Argentinian national team, where he would have trained and played with Messi - and pointed towards that being a reason why he was maybe 'too big for his boots' at the start of this season.

"He did well tonight, but he knows we still expect a lot from him. He did not start the best during pre-season and maybe did not have the attitude that he should have had. But he has changed that now and you can see that with his performances on the pitch."

"He said that was in pre-season, so maybe he was too big for his boots in the summer," Scholes told BT Sport. "He did go with Argentina and play with Messi, and maybe he has come back and thought 'this is me and I am part of this team'.

"He's a young lad, he is going to learn and we are going to see the benefits of that."

Garnacho has featured five times for the senior side this season, but has also been a part of the U21 set-up playing in the EFL Trophy and Premier League 2.

Yet to make his debut for his country at senior level, he was surprisingly included in the 44 provisional man squad for Argentina for the World Cup.

Having signed from Atletico Madrid in 2020, he's now begun to feature on a more regular basis and solid back-to-back performances in the Europa League will bring about more minutes in the near future.