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Manuel Ugarte relishes a battle and can beef up the Red Devils’ lightweight midfield as he looks set to leave Paris-Saint Germain for Old Trafford.
Manchester United had more problems than Jay-Z last season, but midfield was undoubtedly their biggest one. Casemiro had a turbulent campaign marked by injury problems, Sofyan Amrabat could not adapt to the frenetic pace of the Premier League, while Mason Mount missed almost the whole season due to injuries.
As a result, Bruno Fernandes was forced to take on everyone else’s work, which blunted his usual attacking edge. These problems were eased somewhat by the rise of Kobbie Mainoo, but the teenager’s remarkable emergence did not fix a chronic lack of energy and dynamism in the middle.
Early on in the summer, United identified their ideal solution to this problem and set about trying to sign Manuel Ugarte. And after nearly three months of negotiations with Paris Saint-Germain, they finally look to have got a deal over the line.
Ugarte was still in high school when he made his professional debut in Uruguay, but he quickly grew into a man, and a combative one at that. The midfielder relishes going after the ball and last season he made the second-highest amount of tackles in Europe’s top five leagues, only trailing Joao Palhinha, a former team-mate.
The 23-year-old also has energy to burn. His former coach Juan Ramon Carrasco said Ugarte has “seven lungs” and “owns one half of the pitch”. It is little wonder, then, that Erik ten Hag believes Ugarte can transform United’s midfield.
United once had the best tough-tackling midfielder in the world in Roy Keane, but their attempts to replace him have only ever worked in the short-term. Owen Hargreaves had some success in his debut campaign, but his career was soon after destroyed by injuries; Nemanja Matic greatly strengthened Jose Mourinho’s midfield, but he was already 29 by the time he arrived and his powers soon faded; Casemiro also looked to be an excellent short-term signing in 2022, but his error-strewn second campaign showed his limitations.
Ugarte, however, has his best years ahead of him. He might have had his confidence knocked by his short and unsuccessful spell at PSG, but if United play to his strengths, they can look forward to an exciting future, with the Uruguayan shutting down opposition attacks while Mainoo and Fernandes focus on supplying the front line.
Ugarte was born in the Uruguayan capital Montevideo to a humble, hard-working family. His mother was a school teacher, his father a manual labourer, but the family fell on hard times after the economic crisis of 2008 and were forced to sell their home. Things soon improved, though, and now they are reaping the awards of their son’s footballing talent.
The midfielder was never afraid to get his hands dirty, breaking a finger when he was repairing a bike at the age of just three years old. He began his footballing journey with local side City Park and then joined Fenix, a historic yet humble club who have forever been in the shadow of local giants Penarol and Nacional.
Ugarte was an attacking midfielder as a youth and was well ahead of his peers, playing in age groups one or even three years older than him. And the biggest surprise came when, at the age of 15, he was catapulted from Fenix’s reserve side into the first team.
At first, his father Miguel was unsure about the move when he was informed, telling academy coordinator Marcelo Mas: “But he’s only a kid, they’re going to destroy him!” Soon after he became the youngest Uruguayan league debutant in the 21st century when he was brought on during a 4-1 win over Danubio.
Ugarte did not play for the first team again for another two year, but in the meantime he reinvented himself as a defensive midfielder and became a key figure in the 2019 ‘Apertura’ season, helping Fenix finish second and qualify for the Copa Sudamericana, the South American equivalent of the Europa League.
He was soon named club captain at the age of 18, and both Penarol and Nacional were keen to snap him up. But by then he had alerted European clubs to his talents and Portuguese side Famalicao were the first to bite, signing the teenager for €3m(£2.6/$3.2m) in December 2020.
Ugarte had to play in front of empty stadiums for the first few months in Portugal, but he impressed onlookers before newly-crowned champions Sporting CP signed him for €10.5m (£9m/$12m). The Uruguayan was originally a back-up to Palhinha in Lisbon and made only 10 league starts in his first campaign, but when Palhinha joined Fulham, Ugarte became the club’s main holding midfielder.
Sporting had a disappointing 2022-23 campaign, finishing fourth and missing out on qualifying for the Champions League, having exited in the group stage that season. Ugarte’s star kept rising, though, and he became the subject of a fierce transfer battle between PSG and Chelsea. PSG eventually won the tug of war, signing him for €60m (£50m/$66m).
Ugarte got off to a strong start at PSG and was one of the standout players in a thumping 4-0 win over rivals Marseille in Le Classique back in September. His thirst for tackling made fans warm to him, but his rather one-dimensional style and lack of ability for progressive passing seemed to frustrate coach Luis Enrique, who had the pleasure of working with Sergio Busquets at Barcelona and Rodri with the Spain national team.
Luis Enrique did not hide his feelings about the Uruguayan’s limitations, describing him as “a surprise and a revelation to many supporters” but also stressing that “he has so much room for improvement going forward and in defence”.
Ugarte subsequently struggled in PSG’s Champions League group-stage defeats to Newcastle and AC Milan. He was particularly disappointing in the loss at San Siro, being hauled off after an hour in which he had won just three of 15 attempted duels and been booked.
Having started the first five Champions League games, he began on the bench for the decisive group match against Borussia Dortmund. He then played just 26 minutes out of PSG’s six knockout games, remaining on the bench for both legs of the semi-final tie with Dortmund. He also started just three of PSG’s final eight games in Ligue 1.
As early as July it became clear that Ugarte would not be remaining at PSG. His agent Jorge Chijane told O Jogo: “There are many options on the table. It’s almost certain he won’t stay at PSG, it’s certain he’ll leave.” His experience at PSG has not seriously affected his reputation or his market value, though, as United are set to pay almost the same amount for the Uruguayan as PSG did one year ago.
Ugarte did recover some of his confidence at the Copa America this past summer, starting every game as Uruguay reached the semi-finals. He also scored the winning penalty as Marcelo Bielsa’s side knocked Brazil out in the quarter-finals. They were eventually eliminated by Colombia in the semis, but claimed third place ahead of Canada.
Ugarte is a ball hunter. “When I win the ball back I’m happy,” he told PSG’s website last year. “When we have the ball, it’s a game. When we don’t, it’s a fight.”
In analysis by Smarterscout for The Athletic, Ugarte was given a mark of 99 percent for disrupting opposition moves, 92% for ball recoveries and interceptions, plus 78% for defending intensity.
Ugarte also has an excellent injury record, which is likely to be valued highly by Ten Hag given United’s propensity for losing players for long periods due to fitness problems. He also has the stamina and energy to get up and down the pitch, something that Casemiro certainly lacked last season.
The Uruguayan’s energy and defensive awareness should help United plug the holes that kept appearing in midfield last season, which led to them conceding more shots than any other Premier League side aside from relegated Sheffield United.
The Uruguayan is much less comfortable on the ball once he has won it back and prefers to swiftly move it on to others more capable of doing something useful with it.
His progressive passing was rated at just 3% by Smarterscout, while he averaged 4.1 progressive passes per game for PSG, well below the average for Ligue 1, which was 5.4. The same was true of his key passes, just 0.7 per game compared to an average of 1.2.
His contributions to attacking play are minimal. He has just scored once since moving to Europe, and that was with Famalicao, while he contributed two assists each for PSG, Sporting and Famalicao.
Ugarte also experienced a drop-off in key defensive metrics since making the step up from the Portuguese Primeira Liga to Ligue 1. His tackling success rate dropped from 54% in his final season with Sporting to 48% with PSG, as did his number of interceptions (2.2 vs 1.9 per match), recoveries (9.4 vs 8.4 per match) and aerial duel success (63% compared to 54%).
Ugarte joins a United side reeling from a last-gasp defeat to Brighton and could not ask for a higher-stakes debut than Sunday’s Premier League game against Liverpool, who have made a strong start under Arne Slot.
He will then join up with Uruguay for World Cup qualifiers against Paraguay and Venezuela, and United will be praying that he does not return injured as they have a tricky set of fixtures when they resume Premier League action from mid-September. They visit Southampton, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa while hosting Tottenham, and they will also begin their Europa League campaign.
Ten Hag is under huge pressure to turn things around quickly at United after a diabolical last season and he will need Ugarte to hit the ground running and breathe new life into his midfield.
