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• Erik ten Hag demands more from Alejandro Garnacho after Carabao Cup strike

  Erik ten Hag says Alejandro Garnacho was “not good enough” in his previous starts this season after the Manchester United teenager scored in the Carabao Cup victory against Crystal Palace.

  Having secured a much-needed Premier League victory at Burnley on Saturday evening, the Red Devils ran out comfortable 3-0 victors against Roy Hodgson’s south Londoners on Tuesday night.

  Casemiro scored and then crossed for Anthony Martial’s goal on a night started by Garnacho impressively putting the Carabao Cup holders ahead from Diogo Dalot’s cutback.

  The 19-year-old began United’s first two matches of the season, but this was the first time he was named in the starting line-up since the defeat to Tottenham five weeks ago.

  “You have seen at the start of the season we played him and then his contribution was not good enough,” manager Ten Hag said of the Argentina international.

  “But he also had some good actions. You see always he is a threat in the game even when he is not playing that well.

  “He has to learn when he does his job in defending he will always have his moment and he will always be decisive because he has great qualities.

  “As well, it’s not only off the ball. But I want to see like today, he is entering the box in the right spot to finish.

  “But I think it is quite normal for a player of his age that there is space for a lot of improvement.

  “Everyone likes him, the fans like him, the team likes him, I like him but we also have to demand from him and push him because he can act on a very high level but he has to show it every day.”

  United made seven alterations, as did Palace, ahead of Saturday’s Premier League reunion at Old Trafford.

  Ten Hag will hope Christian Eriksen and Scott McTominay can return from what the United boss called illness, so too left-back Sergio Reguilon.

  The on-loan Tottenham full-back’s absence meant Sofyan Amrabat filled in there on his first start for the club, before stepping into midfield at half-time.

  “Sofyan is a player, and that was one of the reasons we signed him, where the team needs him, he will play and he can play in more positions,” Ten Hag said.

  “Every player has his best position but he gives a certain dynamic in the game. We have seen today but also for him and many players, we just started.

  “That process was a little bit interrupted by the many injuries we have because when you can play a long time with the same team then you get routines, the players learn each other and it’s more automatic.

  “You see Mason (Mount), Amrabat, you see also others, they can contribute to our game and they will do.”

  As for Palace, Roy Hodgson had no arguments with the result as his side made a meek Carabao Cup exit in the third round.

  “I thought we were well beaten, basically,” said the Eagles boss, who saw Dean Henderson go off injured on his debut at former club United.

  “I thought they attacked better than we did, defended the few attacks we were able to mount quite comfortably.

  “As a result, unfortunately, you tend when that happens to only be looking at one possible result and that was the result they came up with.”

• Steven Naismith hails Hearts match-winner Alex Lowry

  Steven Naismith hailed match-winner Alex Lowry as a special talent after the on-loan Rangers player’s late goal sent Hearts into the Viaplay Cup semi-finals.

  Kilmarnock were in the ascendancy as the match edged closer to extra time, only for Lowry to strike in time added on to the regulation 90 minutes.

  Brad Lyons had earlier cancelled out Jorge Grant’s opener before Lowry claimed his first goal since moving on loan to Tynecastle last month to seal the victory.

  Naismith praised Lowry as one of the best young Scottish talents in the game but said he wanted to see more from the 20-year-old on a consistent basis.

  The Hearts manager said: “Alex has got brilliant ability.

  “I’m not sure I’ve seen in my whole footballing career a young Scottish player that I have been working with that has got such good … he can do things with a ball that a lot of others can’t.

  “I’ve challenged him to see more moments like that.

  “He’s been frustrated at not getting more game time but I said to him, you need to show moments and when you are on the park, you need to do more.”

  Naismith was pleased to have a Hampden Park semi-final to look forward to but warned that his team would need to follow up that result, starting with a trip to play Ross County this weekend.

  He added: “I was delighted to get through. It was the next step we needed to take.

  “At this club there’s a demand to get to semi-finals and finals and ultimately win silverware.

  “It’s a big win and everybody’s delighted but we do need to back that up.

  “Over the past few seasons we haven’t had good performances at Kilmarnock, and Ross County has been the same.”

  Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes admitted he was frustrated that his players had unnecessarily chased a winning goal rather than waiting for extra time.

  He said: “I was angry [at full-time] that we’ve allowed that type of goal to decide the cup tie. We had Hearts where we wanted them. We were in charge of that tie in the second half.

  “We played the last phase of play as if we needed a goal to get back in the tie. We were guilty of trying to win it then. We were too excitable, too gung-ho to win a game of football in 90 minutes when we could have won the game in extra time.

  “It was all last-gasp and unnecessary, almost as if we were chasing a game to win it in 90 minutes when we didn’t need to. We could – and should – have won it in extra time. But we allowed an opportunity for Hearts and they took it.”

• Manchester City hit by travel headache ahead of hectic fortnight

  Pep Guardiola has revealed Manchester City are affected by travel problems during one of their most hectic periods of the season.

  City have four away games in less than a fortnight, with Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup trip to Newcastle followed by a Premier League clash with Wolves, a Champions League outing to Leipzig and then another league game against Arsenal.

  Guardiola’s men would normally travel back by train or plane to minimise time on the road but neither is available on Wednesday.

  “We cannot come back by plane because we don’t have planes to travel back so we have to take a bus, it’s two, three hours later, we arrive here so, so late,” said the Catalan.

  “Then Friday we have to travel to Wolves. We go to Germany to play Champions League, it’s a really, really important game for us because we know what it means to be able to win there for qualification for the next stage. This is what we have to do.”

  Guardiola admits he will have to play several players he would rather rest because of injury and suspension issues in midfield, while he does not feel he can call on academy products.

  “We cannot take a few of them because we sell a lot of them and still they are not ready to play with us,” he said. “That’s why I have to give time to them to develop. They are still so young to play Newcastle away.”

  One player who will start is Kalvin Phillips, who impressed Guardiola after coming on against Nottingham Forest last weekend.

  It will be just a fifth start for the midfielder since his move from Leeds last summer, where his performances under Marcelo Bielsa persuaded City to sign him.

  “I think Marcelo gave Kalvin the best of Kalvin in his career,” said Guardiola. “I would love to have done with Kalvin what Marcelo has done to him. But it’s where he is.

  “We have a specific way to play. Sometimes he struggles with a few things, but the previous game was perfect. He’s open-minded, he always wants to learn, always wants to help and this is what I try to do.”

  Guardiola named “exhausted” Kyle Walker as one player he will rest but, whatever team he puts out, he expects a better performance than the one that saw City dumped out of the competition by Southampton in the quarter-finals last season.

  “What we don’t want to do is perform not who we are in terms of the principles and who we are as a team, which happened last season against Southampton,” he said.

  “That’s the worst game I’ve had as manager of Man City, by far. I didn’t recognise anything about that. You can lose, of course, credit to Southampton in that game, but you have to meet a minimum and this is what I want from my team in every single game, every single competition.

  “And tomorrow it’s going to happen, I’m pretty sure of that.”