There has been a lot of talk surrounding Manuel Ugarte following Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Athletic Club in the Europa League semi-finals.
Thursday’s Europa League tie was a game of extremes for Manuel Ugarte in Manchester United’s midfield.
From early on the Uruguayan midfielder looked entirely out of his depth on the pitch, being completely run over by Athletic Club in the midfield. It looked like Rúben Amorim had made a significant mistake in starting him.
Yet somehow, he ended that first half of horror with two assists, including an excellent flick around the corner for Bruno Fernandes‘ second goal.
Ugarte has racked up a few goal contributions in recent weeks, scoring the opening goal in United’s wild second leg against Lyon, and has looked a more positive figure when in the final third, despite being signed to play as a defensive midfielder.
With that in mind, UtdDistrict explore the question: Where does Ugarte play his best football?
Most impactful in the final third?
When Athletic Club had a man sent off and moved to 10 men, Amorim pushed Ugarte up higher to play in line with Fernandes, leaving Casemiro alone at the base of United’s midfield. This greatly improved Ugarte’s performance, with and without the ball.
Ugarte is seen as a destroyer profile, but is it perhaps the case, similarly to Fred and Scott McTominay previously, that his intensity is best utilised by crashing the box late and overloading the last line of opposition defences?
In the first two phases of possession, Ugarte makes little to no impact. He doesn’t ever look to pass the ball forward, and his touch can be loose. While he often recovers through his scrappiness, it can put United in dangerous situations, as Ernesto Valverde’s side demonstrated in Thursday’s first half.
Ugarte picked up an assist in last weekend’s game against Bournemouth, flicking the ball on for Rasmus Højlund in a packed box, and against Lyon, he delivered a cleared ball from a corner back in from the edge of the box for Leny Yoro.
Being in the final third could also make more of Ugarte’s tendency to aggressively counter-press, which is often costly to United in the middle of the pitch due to poor jump timing and duelling qualities, leaving the side very open in the middle. In the final third, it could help United better sustain pressure.
More misprofiling from United?
Manuel Ugarte was signed to be a destroyer, bringing legs to United’s midfield, yet defensively feels a very hit-and-miss player who leans more towards missing a lot of the time, and doesn’t have exceptional quality with the ball in deeper areas either.
Yet, in the Europa League particularly, it has emerged that Ugarte is capable of offering the occasional goal threat or the ability to assist someone. This then begs the question: have Manchester United misprofiled another player?
Ugarte has often looked unimpressive at United, and it says a lot that he was bought to be a Casemiro replacement yet has not looked a better player than the Brazilian for United, losing his place after a period of starting ahead of him.
But it looks even worse if United bought a player not at the required level and, on top of that, actually misprofiled him, bringing in a player who best fits a role where they already have several better players.
Whilst United’s recruitment has been better under INEOS, given the club’s financial difficulty, they cannot afford (pun not intended) to make expensive mistakes such as this one with Ugarte.
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