Manuel Ugarte image 25

Manuel Ugarte Uruguay flag

2024-25 Performances

View full 2024-25 profile

6.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
32
Goals
1
Assists
1
Yellow cards
10
Squeaky_Bum_Time said:
There is an easy explanation which was very evident today. He’s better off the ball than on it. Today was an extreme example, commentator was praising how he’s everywhere and taking the ball off their players, which was true, but he was so sloppy in possession (tbf, like many others). I wanted him off at half time.
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True it is not a great suprise that in our home defeats to Brighton,Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest etc that he has been substituted not much after the 60th minute sometimes his midfeild partner at the same time. I suppose this was the reason why PSG barely played him in league games with PSG being the most dominant team in Ligue 1 there was not much need for such a player as Ugarte it's either need to be a case of getting the right CM partner for him or him being more of a squad player played mainly in the games where we are the underdog a bit like how we used Fred.
 
No Love said:
nothing can prepare you for that level of wastefulness
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Ugarte had 83% pass completion, Bruno 81%, and the level of difficulty in Bruno's range of passing compared to Ugarte is levels apart.

Ugarte normally averages around 90%, so an uncharacteristically sloppy game for him on the ball, for as much as he is a bit slow and conservative in his passing he also rarely does anything foolish with it.
 
Roane said:
Anyone seen that breakdown of Bruno and his mistakes?

Ugarte is a good player. He has a role and keeps it simple. The problem is when you have someone undisciplined like Bruno next to you, you end up covering too big an area.

Problem Ugarte has was the system he was bought for isn't what we now play.
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...Or more to the point he is not designed to play the system that Amorim wants to play which is weird as he was the only player who played under Amorim before. It makes one wonder the trigger of Ugarte's departure from Amorim's Sporting was it when took over from Benfica & Porto as the most dominant team in Portugal ?
 
RedWat said:
...Or more to the point he is not designed to play the system that Amorim wants to play which is weird as he was the only player who played under Amorim before. It makes one wonder the trigger of Ugarte's departure from Amorim's Sporting was it when took over from Benfica & Porto as the most dominant team in Portugal ?
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Bold statement which is probably untrue.
If you want to know why he left, it was because he was one of the best players in the side and top clubs wanted him

In any of our good performances, he has been one of the top performers by the way (in the system he isn't designed to play in)
 
Cassidy said:
Bold statement which is probably untrue.
If you want to know why he left, it was because he was one of the best players in the side and top clubs wanted him

In any of our good performances, he has been one of the top performers by the way (in the system he isn't designed to play in)
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People want to blame the system for everything and it is so tedious.
 
Man Utd 2:1 Leicester New
Is he carrying an injury? Just seems quite pedestrian in his movement in recent games.

He needs to pass the ball quicker as well, strange player at times, he can ping a pass on occasion but he really needs to build himself up to it, often wants a few too mnay touches before playing the ball.
 
Excellent at winning possession but uncertain about what to do when he has the ball. Shouldn't have lost possession in the lead-up to their goal. Good through-ball to Garnacho for the deflected shot that got cleared off the line via the crossbar.
 
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Those are the kind of performances that really worry me, and are exactly what regular watchers warned us about. He offered pretty much nothing on the ball for the whole game, which won’t work longer term in games like this.
 
Played a nice ball through to Garnacho for the chance Leicester cleared off the line
 
Underwhelming player.

He can’t sustain that high action style for 5 games in a row. That’s disappointing for a €50m player.

The fact that Bruno deputizes in midfield and KM has fallen off also means we are painfully short in that position.
 
We paid 60m or so for a standard shin kicker if we are honest. Which frustrates the feck out of me considering those tackling profiles can be found all over the place.

He's fine but certainly not good enough to warrant being a primary midfield target that we take off PSG's hands after a poor season.
 
He's more suited for the big games against the Liverpools and Arsenals where we don't expect to dominate possession.. Would rather see us playing more ball playing creative midfielders against weaker teams especially at home.
 
I want to see Mainoo and Bruno in midfield together when Ugarte eventually gets a suspension.

Mainoo has some defensive ability without being only all defensive ability and is press resistant and keeps the ball rolling.

I don't necessarily think we need big tackling type of midfielders when we play 3 CB's and especially against teams like Leicester City.
 
I think if/when we become a force again in the league he'll be a rotation player but he's better than the slagging off he's seemingly getting in the thread at the moment
 
People seem to forget he's still on 23. Good player, at times limited on the ball but that's more on mentality than ability. Will have his role to play here. Ideally we have an all action guy (ala Ederson) to play with him in tough games and replace him in games we have more of the ball.
 
We have a special ability to buy players that are a specialist at one thing and not players that have all round attributes. I know why our team struggles now.
 
He still gives us some solidity through the middle, and a bit of aerial ability on clearances. That pass to Garnacho couldn't have been him, right? What a ball.

He's relatively young, new to the league and imo is doing fine for his first six months.

He could very much form a great central midfield. Just not with the rest of our squad.
 
His main asset is that he is very aggressive, very proactive, play with high intensity and high energy, and willing to throw his body, which is why his defensive numbers is pretty good because the way how he plays and his energy. But he lacks of physical attribute and lacks of pace. To be considered as destroyer, at least he needs to have one of these.

So on top of lack physical attribute and lack of pace to be world class destroyer, he also lack of creativity with his passing, which makes me think it’s a waste of money. I actually don’t think he will make it here for long term. I would love to be proven wrong though in years to come because I hate to think that he’s going to be another of our dud signing. But for short term, I guess he’s the least of our problem now. But I can’t see someone like this guy will be good enough for a team that wants to challenge or win the league because that’s the long term goal.
 
Not surprised he has an injury. Ugarte has been limping around for the last two or three games in the second halves. Surprised he has lasted this long. Another case of running are players into the ground.
 
downunder red said:
Not surprised he has an injury. Ugarte has been limping around for the last two or three games in the second halves. Surprised he has lasted this long. Another case of running are players into the ground.
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He's probably limping because of the crunching tackles he's been making, he's hardly been overplayed and he's certainly not been run in to the ground
 
Red in STL said:
He's probably limping because of the crunching tackles he's been making, he's hardly been overplayed and he's certainly not been run in to the ground
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Yeah he definitely loves a tackle but I was thinking there was times lately he could of been subbed earlier instead of limping around.
 
Seems to be that Ugarte is better suited to playing against stronger sides. Well, realistically, that would be almost every team in the league right now, so the guy should be a regular.

He is a ball winner, never anything more. You need a strong player in the middle, regardless of your system and tactics, somebody needs to be able to let the opposition know that they cannot simply bully United and let us be frank, that has happened plenty in the past. If United managed to acquire / develop a genuine stud to play next to him, a really good, energetic and creative midfielder, as a pairing, that would work best, obviously.
 
Everton 2:2 Man Utd New
Great goal, but was thinking he was having a poor game until the last 20, he and Cas were thoroughly dominated by Gueye and Doucoure for long periods, only had 1 tackle in the match which is terribly low for him.
 
So glad for him, finally the first goal for the team.
Think he was good today, but his passing was a bit shaky at times.
 
Not easy technique to volley the ball on his weaker foot past England's No. 1. Was a bit surprising that Pickford didn't save it but was a crucial goal. I like Ugarte, he at least provides legs and doesn't lose the ball too much in midfield which is something we need.
 
Would say he needs to move the ball faster. He has this habit of taking 2/3 extra seconds before playing an obvious pass. Doesn't give the ball away much but it is all a bit pedestrian.
 
Great goal, just not a very good player. Part of the reason we struggle to progress up the pitch, no serious team plays or invests 40m+ on a player so limited on the ball
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He was good overall. Hence he’s only had five posts in this thread after the game.
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I think good is a stretch. Admittedly Casimero was a statue but he just doesnt cover ground like I was expecting, at time you wonder if he is still on the pitch. Someone said he made one tackle. A bit of a nothing player at the moment, though better than some
 
Pogue Mahone said:
He was good overall. Hence he’s only had five posts in this thread after the game.
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I think good is a stretch. Admittedly Casimero was a statue but he just doesnt cover ground like I was expecting, at time you wonder if he is still on the pitch. Someone said he made one tackle. A bit of a nothing player at the moment, though better than some
Pogue Mahone said:
So many bad takes. Every day a reminder why I’m spending less and less time on the football forums.
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So if he is so great why are we so exposed in midfield? Should we all bow to your superior reading of the game and players? I know the formation leaves us outnumbered, but Casimero in his first season showed what a good destroyer can do in midfield even in a challenging set up. He is another who started OK but seems to have get worse under Amorim. It was flagged as a weakness but his poor passing and difficulty in receiving a ball in pressured situations is being really exposed and harms us playing out, why apparently Liverpool passed on him. To be fair I sympathise with any midfielders expected to progress the ball when we have 5 defenders, 2 DMs and only 3 attacking players....
 
Pogue Mahone said:
So many bad takes. Every day a reminder why I’m spending less and less time on the football forums.
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It’s actually crazy how little perspective there is at the moment. Ugarte in his first season with us has been fantastic The context is - new club, new league, in a team doing horribly with no regular midfield partner and the midfield partners he has had have mostly left him running the midfield on his own, changing wingbacks every match which means he has to constantly be thinking about his positioning and the same with the centre backs.


The cognitive load along with the work rate that is asked of his is massive. You see midfielders in settled teams and settled systems and everything is instinctive because they know where they can expect support, where they need to cover, who they can confidently pass to and even which foot they’d prefer it on.
 
Pexbo said:
It’s actually crazy how little perspective there is at the moment. Ugarte in his first season with us has been fantastic The context is - new club, new league, in a team doing horribly with no regular midfield partner and the midfield partners he has had have mostly left him running the midfield on his own, changing wingbacks every match which means he has to constantly be thinking about his positioning and the same with the centre backs.


The cognitive load along with the work rate that is asked of his is massive. You see midfielders in settled teams and settled systems and everything is instinctive because they know where they can expect support, where they need to cover, who they can confidently pass to and even which foot they’d prefer it on.
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It being his first season at the club isn’t relevant, he’s shown at Sporting and most recently at PSG how limited he is. It’s not his first season in football. It works at Sporting, it doesn’t work in Ligue 1 for a title winning team, and it certainly doesn’t work in the Premier League if you want to be a good team. Hate how he feels the need to dive in every challenge possible, yes he does win an incredible amount but at the same time leaves us exposed a lot. Happened at the Brighton game for one of their goals conceded.
 
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