Why Manuel Ugarte should not start for Manchester United vs Southampton

Manuel Ugarte was Manchester United’s final summer window signing, joining on an initial £42 million deal that has divided opinion.

Ugarte was regarded very well at Sporting, but in his sole season at PSG, he never quite settled and fell out of favour with boss Luis Enrique.

For this reason, many are sceptical about United paying him such a hefty fee, and some are unhappy that academy graduate and key squad player Scott McTominay was forced to make way for him.

However, United needed to buy a player in the position, with Casemiro not being entirely at the level he was previously. His sub-par performance against Liverpool has made fans particularly eager to see someone else in the position, but calls to start Ugarte are premature.

Erik ten Hag caused some controversy with his comments on the Uruguayan following the Liverpool, saying that he is ‘not Harry Potter’ and Ugarte could take ‘weeks, maybe even months’ to be ready to play.

To many people, this seemed to be an extreme and unnecessary comment, but there is some substance to it. Ugarte played at the Copa America for his nation, a tournament hosted across the USA.

Given the size of the country, this saw him do a great deal of flying, and travel times are a big factor in player recovery—Christian Eriksen spoke about how much they impacted United on their summer 2023 tour across the USA.

Since the Copa America took place, he did not train with the group at PSG – training individually as he was out of favour – and had just one training session with Ten Hag’s United.

Since then, he has travelled to South America to play for Uruguay during the international break and returned to Manchester on Thursday, leaving just one training session before Southampton.

With such a significant amount of travelling and almost no preparation for club football behind him, it would be incredibly unwise to start Ugarte against Southampton.

Despite a poor performance against Liverpool, Casemiro is currently better equipped to start games for United.

Toby Collyer, who replaced Casemiro at halftime in the 3-0 defeat, showcased a lot of character in his performance against Liverpool.

While his game needs to develop in possession, he offers Erik ten Hag strong duelling qualities and intense and intelligent ground coverage. These are qualities that are very much needed in United’s midfield.

With Ugarte having not played club football since May, minimal training at United, and a lot of air miles racked up recently, starting him against Southampton is unwise and poses a big injury risk to the player.

After last season, United certainly do not need more injuries—especially to a player who was brought in primarily to raise the squad’s physical level.

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