Axel Tuanzebe praised the six Manchester United players who made their debuts during the Reds' last Europa League game.
Ethan Laird, Di’Shon Bernard, Dylan Levitt, D’Mani Mellor, Largie Ramazani and Ethan Galbraith made their senior bows in Kazakhstan last month as United succumbed to a 2-1 defeat by Astana.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side returns to European action against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday night and plenty of young faces will be involved once again.
“I think they played good football and showed qualities of being Man United players,” Tuanzebe said of the six debutants in Nur-Sultan.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to win the game, but I was more than happy with a lot of the lads’ performances.
“They have big characters and courage to come out and perform in a difficult ground - there were so many variables and we were unlucky that we didn’t win the game.”
Previewing the game against Alkmaar, Tuanzebe told the United website: “Although we’re already qualified, we want to put out a strong side and win the game.
“Remembering the [away] game against Alkmaar, they were a decent side and played decent football. Normally, Dutch sides are very technical. We want to win the last game at home and win the group.”
United will be in the draw for the last 32 on Monday regardless of the outcome of Thursday's game and will have a one-in-four chance of drawing a third-placed Champions League team.
Ajax, Inter Milan, Salzburg and Benfica are already guaranteed to drop into Europe's secondary competition in the new year.
"I think you get the teams that haven’t qualified for the Champions League coming out and it improves the quality of the Europa League,“ Tuanzebe added.
“You have much more competitive teams, and you’re always happier when you’ve beaten a stronger team, and you can always improve more after beating a stronger team.”
