Man Utd may regret selling £25m flop who’s now outscoring Garnacho & Amad

The January loan departures of Marcus Rashford and Antony have left Manchester United considerably short of options in attack.

One of the best players under Ruben Amorim so far, Amad, is out for the rest of the season, and Kobbie Mainoo and Mason Mount will also be sidelined for a lengthy amount of time.

In recent weeks, Bruno Fernandes has played a far deeper role, and even though he played as a number 10 against Everton, he moved back to play as an eight, as United went on to win the game. Christian Eriksen is starting to play less of a role, and Joshua Zirkzee seems to have nailed down one of the number 10 positions.

One of the other attacking options for United is Alejandro Garnacho who isn’t quite living up to his potential.

Alejandro Garnacho’s 2024/25 season in numbers

After a fast start to the 2024/25 campaign for Argentina international Garnacho, he has slowed down considerably in the last few months. The winger has played 40 times throughout 2024/25, contributing with eight goals and six assists, but has been on a lean run of form.

The 20-year-old, who has three goals and one assist in the top flight of English football this season, has not scored or assisted in the Premier League since November when Ruud van Nistelrooy was caretaker boss. That goal was a sublime long-range effort against Leicester City.

Garnacho was actually linked with a move away from Old Trafford in the January transfer window, too. Reports at the end of the winter market suggested

Premier League side Chelsea and Serie A giants Napoli were both interested in a move for the youngster.

That transfer never materialised, and the youngster remained at the club. He has since made headlines again after he walked down the tunnel following an early substitution against Ipswich Town. Amorim sacrificed his number 17 after Patrick Dorgu’s red card and said he is “going to talk with Garnacho” about the incident.

The Red Devils winger has struggled for form and a regular starting spot under the new United boss. and to sum up his woes, he is also getting outscored this season by a former United winger.

The former Man United star outperforming Garnacho

One of the high-flying sides in the Championship this season is Leeds United. United’s arch-rivals are pushing for automatic promotion back to the top flight, and are spearheaded by a former Red Devils star.

That happens to be Daniel James who made the move from one side of the Pennines to the other in 2021, when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was the manager at Old Trafford. He made 74 appearances in the famous red shirt, scoring and assisting nine goals each.

He joined Leeds for a fee rumoured fee of £25m, and has since gone on to make over 100 appearances for the Whites. In 115 games so far, he has scored 27 goals and grabbed 20 assists.

James has really made an impact this term. The Wales international has played 29 games, scoring ten goals and creating eight others. Perhaps his finest moment came in the 7-0 thrashing of Cardiff City at Elland Road, a game in which James scored one and assisted two.

Not only does James have more goals and more assists than Garnacho in all competitions but he’s also remarkably contributing more regularly than Amad (9 goals & 7 assists).

Furthermore, the Wales speedster is outperforming the Argentine in several other key metrics, as per Squawka. For example, the Leeds number seven has 0.9 goal involvements per 90 minutes in the Championship, compared to 0.3 for Garnacho in the Premier League each game.

As good as Garnacho has been over the course of his short United career so far, having James in and around the squad could also have been hugely beneficial for the Red Devils. His pace and ability to score and create on a consistent basis would have been needed in what has been a tough season.

Now doing the business for their bitter rivals, perhaps this is a deal the Red Devils regret doing all those years ago. It’s safe to say he’d have been better value than Antony…