Manchester United made it three draws from three in the Europa League against Fenerbahce on Thursday.
After beating Brentford last weekend, many assumed that Manchester United had turned a corner, with the second-half performance being impressive.
However, on Thursday night Erik ten Hag’s side had regressed back into mediocrity – despite some impressive individual United performances.
A 15th-minute Christian Eriksen goal opened the scoring, but as is the norm in Europe, the lead was soon thrown away as Jose Mourinho continued his impressive record against United.
The game between United and Fenerbahce ended 1-1 in Istanbul, leaving the Red Devils with a lot of work to do if progression to the knockout stage is desired.
Manuel Ugarte finally shines for Manchester United
Things could have been much worse for Manchester United on Thursday night, with Manuel Ugarte being a deciding factor in the game at both ends of the pitch.
For the opening goal of the game, it was United’s Uruguayan who kickstarted the attack, winning the ball in midfield before progressing play – all before Eriksen made it 1-0.
Eight minutes after this contribution, Ugarte was decisive at the other end as he made a goal-saving block to deny Fenerbahce a first-half equaliser.
Ugarte was raved about for his block here, with Robbie Savage on TNT Sports commentary lauding him as being “brilliant defensively”, before labelling the £42m midfielder as being “world-class”.
It was these two moments which defined “Ugarte’s best performance” in the red of United to date as Paul Scholes raved post-game on TNT Sports, and also defined the outcome of the match. Without the No.25’s intervention, Fenerbahce walks away with all three points.
How Ugarte fared in his best display for United yet
Ugarte has had a slow beginning to life at Old Trafford, but Thursday was arguably the first game in which he has starred.
The 23-year-old played the entire 90 minutes and had some impressive stats in the game – but also some which were not so impressive.
- 37/42 passes completed (88%)
- 58 touches
- 1/1 dribbles (100%)
- 1 blocked shot
- 1/2 tackles won (50%)
- 1 cleared off the line
- 4 clearances
- 3 interceptions
- 14 defensive actions
- 4 recoveries
- 2 dribbled past
- 5/12 duels won (42%)
These stats are impressive mostly and show the reasons that Ugarte was signed as he managed to completely dominate in midfield for much of the game despite losing duels.
More outings like this will begin the make the £42m decision from Ineos look genius.
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