If this is Manuel Ugarte only half-fit, then Manchester United have a lot to look forward to.
The Red Devils’ new £42 million midfielder would have been forgiven for looking a little off the pace during Uruguay’s World Cup qualifier against Paraguay on Friday night.
Manuel Ugarte has not had the luxury of a pre-season, after all, after being bombed out of the Paris Saint-Germain squad by Luis Enrique.
And while there were a few occasions when Manchester United’s number 25 was a second or two late to the party – understandably still la little rusty – Manuel Ugarte won an impressive 75 per cent of his duels both on the ground and in the air.
Which much has been made of Ugarte’s tough-tackling style – he produced the most tackles in Ligue 1 since a pre-Leicester City N’Golo Kante at PSG last term – his imposing 6ft frame also makes the former Sporting Lisbon enforcer a useful aerial presence.
Especially when it comes to clearing away long balls fired down the field.
Manuel Ugarte shows why Manchester United signed him
One first-half challenge would certainly have put a smile on the faces of the United supporters.
As a Paraguay forward threatened to race into the penalty area, Ugarte dived in and knocked the ball out of his stride with a perfectly-timed yet crunching sliding tackle. Forget the ‘new Casemiro’, this was a dispossession straight out of Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s playbook.
“We had players with a great ability to recover the ball,” Uruguay’s legendary head coach Marcelo Bielsa said after a hard-fought 0-0 draw, via Debate, a handful of fierce challenges one of the few things those in attendance had to cheer during a rather dull encounter.
“In fact, I think this is what the fans celebrated the most; the number of balls recovered by our two full-backs and Ugarte.”
During his official unveiling as a Manchester United player on deadline day last week, technical director Dan Ashworth labelled the granite-carved 23-year-old one of ‘the very best ball-winning midfield players in the world’.
Ugarte alone will not solve Man United’s tactical issues.
The under-pressure Erik ten Hag has not only undermined Casemiro’s greatest strengths but also exposed his most obvious flaws with a kamikaze midfield set-up.
One suspects that, if Ugarte is to succeed in stopping Man United being carved through like a knife cutting into hot butter, Ten Hag will have to adapt or start looking for another job.
Former PSG star is a major help to Erik ten Hag
Still, former Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and England midfielder Jamie Redknapp believes that Ugarte could quickly become a load-bearing pillar in a Man United team crying out for a bit of ferocity.
“He is very aggressive,” Redknapp tells Sky Sports (30th August, 3pm). “He is what they probably need. Casemiro last year, obviously, was a huge disappointment.
“Ugarte coming in, he is going to be a really good signing. He is aggressive, he wins the ball back. You get the feeling that he is made for the Premier League because that’s an area where they really need to strengthen.
“It’s hard to find players in that mould.”
Ugarte’s passing range is perhaps the most obvious area of his game which needs some improvement, as highlighted by United legend Paul Scholes.
But while hardly an elite ball-progressor like his idol Sergio Busquets, the man himself believes that his on-the-ball qualities have been a little underplayed. Ugarte completed 87 per cent of his passes against Paraguay.
And, although often chooses the simple option, there was still ten passes fizzed into the final third, Ugarte proving that he is not merely someone who keep things ticking over.
- READ MORE: Manchester United confirmed signings, transfers in, out, loan exits, releases for 2024/25
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