It took more than a decade, but Manchester United have finally addressed their pain point of a long-term defensive midfielder with the signing of Manuel Ugarte.
That area of the team has been taped with bandages ever since Sir Alex Ferguson retired, with either older players coming in as false dawns, or mismatched talents failing at Old Trafford.
Casemiro was the latest tape applied to the fracture but he’s falling apart now so Manuel Ugarte’s transfer happens at the perfect time.
Manuel Ugarte’s style of play leaves plenty of options for Erik ten Hag to set his team up as per the opposition.
Here are three ways Manchester United can line up with Ugarte at the base of midfield-
The Destroyer
Erik ten Hag wants his team to win the ball back quickly and high up, and Manuel Ugarte relishes winning the ball back quickly and high up.
It’s a match made in heaven and against better teams who hope to dominate possession against United, the destroyer option is the one to go with.
Ten Hag can pair two ball-winning destroyers by putting Ugarte next to Casemiro in a 4-2-3-1 pivot. Casemiro is increasingly doing his best work further forward but winning the ball back is muscle memory for him at this stage of his career.
Ten Hag can even put Kobbie Mainoo alongside the pair in a 4-3-3 and station Bruno Fernandes on the left wing to create an extremely hard-to-beat team.
This is a nuclear defensive option as the name implies. It will “destroy” the opposition’s ability to create chances, but might hamper United in possession too.
The Orchestrator
This is the most likely iteration that Ten Hag will go with if the deep double pivot in midfielder is persisted with.
That is because pairing Ugarte alongside an orchestrator, i.e., a player who can be a metronome with the ball to hide Ugarte’s lack of on-ball skills, is a perfect pairing.
Mainoo-Ugarte, therefore, is the partnership that makes the most sense since it will also allow Casemiro to come on late and act as a fail-safe on fresh legs.
This is likely to lead to less chaos as players coming on will be of similar quality to those coming off, making the entire team balance better.
This iteration of the team will allow Mainoo to dictate play without the pressure of contributing defensively to each possession, thus tiring him out.
Ugarte is the “water carrier” on the pitch for this iteration, and that is perhaps the role which suits him best.
The Progressor
If Ten Hag is feeling adventurous and confident about his team’s ability to dominate a game, perhaps against a lower-league opposition, then this might be a good option.
It pairs Manuel Ugarte as the sole holding midfielder in a 4-3-3 with Kobbie Mainoo and Bruno Fernandes as the two “No 8s”.
This is a tactic that was used by Pep Guardiola when, against popular convention, he started two attack-minded midfielders as central players with a sole defensive midfielder behind them.
They could get away with it because they finished most games with more than 70% possession, and inverted fullbacks strengthened the midfield too.
In Diogo Dalot and Noussair Mazraoui, Ten Hag has options to invert his fullbacks as well so an extremely attack-minded 4-3-3 where Ugarte is the sole player with defensive responsibilities could be an option, but only when the team gets to a place where it feels comfortable dominating games.
Receive a digest of our best United content each week direct to your mailbox
