Manchester United drew 1-1 with Twente as the Europa League campaign started poorly on Wednesday.
It was yet another disappointing outing for Manchester United, dropping two points from a winning position and in a performance which was solid for large parts of the game.
Harry Maguire and Christian Eriksen were at fault for the Twente goal, with both making terrible decisions at a crucial moment of the game.
However, ultimately the performance and decisions from Erik ten Hag were just not good enough and that sentence includes new midfielder Manuel Ugarte.
The Uruguayan struggled on the ball, completing just 59 of his 73 passes – which is far from good enough from a number six.
Now, he has been reacting to his own performance.
Manuel Ugarte sends message
Despite being solid in a defensive aspect against Twente, ultimately Ugarte was left far from impressed with his first European start for Manchester United.
He made his feelings on this clear as he took to Instagram with a message following the game.
He wrote in Spanish: “El primero en hacer autocritca. No fue un gran partido en lo personal. Hay queue seguir trabajando.”
Before he also posted the English translation below.
“The first to make self-criticism. It wasn’t a great match personally. We have to keep working.”
After this self-critical comment – which saw Ugarte quite harsh on himself considering his performance off the ball was quite good, he received responses.
Second-half substitute Alejandro Garnacho was in the comments with a message for his South American teammate.
Alejandro Garnacho’s comment was in Spanish, and translates roughly to: “Let’s go brother”.
This message is one of support, as our Argentine winger looks to avoid Ugarte dropping his head after a poor result.
Manchester United’s Ugarte has high standards
Seeing Ugarte critical of himself after an okay performance shows how high his standards are in midfield.
| Stat | Vs. Twente |
| Touches | 91 |
| Passing | 59/73 (81%) |
| Passes into final third | 10 |
| Long passing | 2/3 (67%) |
| Tackles | 2/4 (50%) |
| Blocks | 1 |
| Clearances | 2 |
| Interceptions | 3 |
| Defensive actions | 10 |
| Recoveries | 5 |
| Duels | 6/10 (60%) |
From his stats, we can tell Ugarte had a decent game defensively – the main reason he was brought in.
However, the one critique we have is that for a player to get on the ball 91 times in the game, we would need him to be more reliable and complete a higher percentage of his passes.
That being said, with the addition of Kobbie Mainoo, he will likely improve and also as he continues to know the system of Erik ten Hag.
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