Bruno Fernandes has revealed Alejandro Garnacho was "not at his best" at the start of the season, with concerns over his attitude.
Although 18-year-old Garnacho travelled on United's pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, he did not play a single minute while on tour, while players like Tahith Chong, who looked set to leave the club, were given minutes by Erik ten Hag.
That decision seemed bizarre, but Ten Hag explained last week - after Garnacho was handed his full debut against FC Sheriff - that he was "not happy" with the youngster at the beginning of the campaign, which Fernandes has now expanded on.
Garnacho scored the game's only goal against Real Sociedad on Thursday night and Fernandes was asked about Garnacho after the game. Fernandes discussed his attitude at the start of the season and lauded the forward for his recent turnaround.
"That’s why he hasn’t got his chances until now. He's getting his chances now because he's training better, he's got a different attitude and he's deserving his chances. Everyone is really happy for him and pleased with his goal."
Fernandes was also asked about the next round of the competition, the play-off round in which United could play Ajax, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Sevilla, Sporting Libson, Juventus, RB Salzburg or Shakhtar Donetsk.
"We don't need to look at that," he added. "Our main goal was to win the group, so we could avoid that, but now we have to play against one of them and that's no problem for us. We want to win the competition, so we have to play good teams.
"Sooner or later, we will be ready for that."