One Manchester United man is set to continue his revival under Rúben Amorim after his teammate failed an audition to return to the club’s starting XI next week.
After a two-week pause for international fixtures, Rúben Amorim’s Manchester United return to action on Tuesday, 1 April, as they travel to face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.
United went into the break in fine form, having beaten Real Sociedad twice, swept aside Leicester City with a 3-0 win, and held Arsenal to a 1-1 draw.
Bruno Fernandes has been especially impressive, racking up five goals and two assists in his last three outings under Amorim.
While the trip to Forest offers a great opportunity for United to pick up where they left off, Amorim will also be mindful of the crucial fixtures on the horizon — a Manchester Derby and a two-legged Europa League quarter-final tie against Olympique Lyonnais.
Ugarte puts up alarming stats with Uruguay
One player recalled to their national side set-up last week was midfielder Manuel Ugarte, who flew back to South America to compete with Uruguay. However, he was suspended for the initial tie against Argentina.
With the player rested, Uruguay boss Marco Bielsa chose to select him to start against Bolivia, although Ugarte’s 90-minute performance has left fans worried about the player.
Playing at a potentially unsafe altitude, with the stadium sitting 4,100 metres above sea level, Ugarte had a poor defensive performance, with fans pointing out after the game that the 23-year-old was dribbled past nine times, also losing 16 of his 24 attempted duels in the process.
While outlet El Pais still handed the player a 6/10 for his performance, they stressed that his short-range passing left much to be desired.
“He failed to play short, which cost him the ball in Uruguay’s half in the first 45 minutes,” they summised.
“He was booked for a poor pass and being late to tackle. He finished well from outside the box and improved in the second half.”
Casemiro set to continue Amorim revival
Before the 3-0 win over Leicester City, Ugarte found himself unavailable for United’s Europa League ties against Real Sociedad and Premier League fixture against Arsenal, with Casemiro starting in his place alongside Fernandes.
Many commented that the Brazilian was fantastic during these fixtures, especially considering that Casemiro had become a forgotten man under Amorim earlier in the season.
With Ugarte failing to put in a positive performance on his return to international duty and Casemiro having had a full 16 days rest during the March break, it seems as if the latter will continue his resent revival under Amorim.
United’s next few fixtures are crucial for their season, with the Forest trip being followed by a crunch Man City clash, with a visit to Newcastle the weekend after sandwiched in between the two Europa League ties against Lyon.
While it will be almost impossible for Casemiro to start all five fixtures, the current feeling is that Amorim may look to prioritise playing the Brazilian over Ugarte, especially considering how useful Casemiro has been when United have had to stave off attacking pressure.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (GMT) on the United View YouTube channel.