Boom!!!
Manuel Ugarte | Romano - he’s signed | Awaiting Club announcement
- Thread starter WeePat
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Boom!!!
For someone who's watched him enough, which current or past players does he compare to?
Well, how do we know until he plays for us?
when I said stop gap, it's in terms of age. The skill and position profiles are matching our need.
Delighted he's signing. Just a shame he's going to have had such a stop-start summer / beginning to the season.
Away with Uruguay in the summer, then out of the picture at PSG so not playing and missing our first few league games; and then when he arrives it's an international break coming up and Uruguay have 3 matches in it - the first a friendly, the other two World Cup qualifiers. So I imagine he'll be involved in the latter two - which at least gives him some important game time, but means he'll only arrive back from South America a few days before our next league game.
With all that, I think he'll have to be eased in slowly. Though knowing our luck he'll probably get injured in those Uruguayan matches!
Away with Uruguay in the summer, then out of the picture at PSG so not playing and missing our first few league games; and then when he arrives it's an international break coming up and Uruguay have 3 matches in it - the first a friendly, the other two World Cup qualifiers. So I imagine he'll be involved in the latter two - which at least gives him some important game time, but means he'll only arrive back from South America a few days before our next league game.
With all that, I think he'll have to be eased in slowly. Though knowing our luck he'll probably get injured in those Uruguayan matches!
he compares to all the current players in that he’s alive. however he differs with the past players who are now dead.
Hopefully Wharton kicks on at Palace this season and we're in for him next, while getting rid of Case. It's definitely a profile of player needed and the we'd have decent enough options at DM and CM. Excited to see Ugarte play for us. Hoping he has an immediate impact.
Nice. Much needed.
Great but we still need one more cm and a LB.
Well on the previous page you just said that Ugarte changes nothing and we've wasted money on him so you tell us.
A younger Fred
Stylistically I'd argue he's similar to Kante, great energy, speed and ground covered, good ball winner but won't dictate play, he will win it back and give it a short pass to someone else
Definitely true. Nice spare parts don't make a great machine but you also cannot put together a great machine if you are missing needed parts. Both of those are required
Erik is responsible for putting these individuals into a winning team, now. If he doesn't, he will be gone before Christmas. No more excuses
I wish we had a proper, non-injury-prone LB to complete the picture but what we have will have to do. Maybe we can sign or loan an LB in the January window
I hate to spill cold water on this but he is a midfielder with few goal involvements to his name. Four assists and no goals in 109 appearances over three years in Portugal and France. And we will in return lose McTominay's goals and assists.
My concerns would go if we were also seeking a creative midfielder. But we are not. Where are the goals coming from?
We managed just 57 goals last season.
My concerns would go if we were also seeking a creative midfielder. But we are not. Where are the goals coming from?
We managed just 57 goals last season.
Good signing, I think he adds something we need and have needed for a while.
Successful transfer window overall.
Successful transfer window overall.
feck sake.
*Ten days later*
"Ugarte is out for the next six months because he signed for united"
"Ugarte is out for the next six months because he signed for united"
Let's get him fit as soon as possible we ideally need him for the Pool game.
Your last posts about Ugarte in this thread, in order. Imagine how daft they make you look.
You are thinking too linearly - We will get more goals to our existing roster as Ugarte ensures we retain and win back the ball more often which should result in less goals conceded and more chances
Could be the type of signing that helps keep him in a job in the long run, tbh. His subs continue to be an issue, but part of that is the massive dips that we have throughout the squad where our bench options just aren't good enough. But, suddenly, we have the option to rotate between Casemiro and Ugarte. That should help us to stop being overrun late within games, or should help us to protect any leads that we have.
Defence looks like it's steadily improving with the signings we've made. I'm less convinced by the forward line. I would love a really spicy forward.
You would hope that we have now added enough depth to our defensive players that we have a much more stable base for players such as Bruno/Rashford etc al to build on.
We're still not up there with the best but there has been clear progress during this window.
A clever loan signing or two might be possible to really push on.
As someone mentioned, a younger Fred with a lot more positional awareness and less of the silly mistakes - he has room to improve, but is a player that can have a higher ceiling than Fred. I'd say at a stretch he reminds me of Roy Keane, but if Ugarte has half the career Keane had he'd be a raging success here - it's a bit too soon to put him in those echelons of course. Outside of United, he reminds me a lot of someone like Mascherano or Gattuso - Easily my favourite type of player to have in a team.
After so much pushing, he sure needs some medicine
Not a fan but now that he is here, better than Kante, Viera and Mascherano
Can't argue with 20-30M euros plus McTominay (28) for Ugarte (23).
Should be a strong upgrade at everything except goalscoring and that might be similar since McTominay's recent uptick in goals (for club and country, so I'd guess it's not a fluke) occurred from higher up the field than Ugarte will play, so whoever ends up in the sort of central attacking midfield spot McTominay would be in (Zirkzee, Hojlund, Mount, Bruno, Mainoo, even Casemiro coming on late) should still have some goals in them.
Hopefully the Sporting fans who preferred him to Palhinha were right.
Should be a strong upgrade at everything except goalscoring and that might be similar since McTominay's recent uptick in goals (for club and country, so I'd guess it's not a fluke) occurred from higher up the field than Ugarte will play, so whoever ends up in the sort of central attacking midfield spot McTominay would be in (Zirkzee, Hojlund, Mount, Bruno, Mainoo, even Casemiro coming on late) should still have some goals in them.
Hopefully the Sporting fans who preferred him to Palhinha were right.
Finally
A huge concern for me too. Our wingers are also either inconsistent or just down right shite. Which is why I wasn't too opposed to signing Sterling.
I think the thing with Rabiot is I would envision him as a rotational piece for Mainoo, but also someone that could play alongside him in some games. We need to make sure we don't overrun Mainoo this season after he's had more game time than expected last season and the Euros. We don't really have anyone other than Eriksen who could spell him, and Eriksen doesn't have the legs anymore. As I've said before in other threads if Rabiot would accept a 2-3 year contract it would allow Mainoo to grow with less pressure on his shoulders and give him adequate rest.
I suppose the question is, would he accept that length of contract and would his wage demands be in line with what we're trying to do. I doubt those two things as he's 39 and going to want security and better wages ,so I reckon it's a non-starter, but I think we should be trying to help Mainoo out, and if we shipped Eriksen out all the better. I suspect though, it'll be Eriksen staying and filling in for him. Maybe that's okay as Eriksen is a different profile, but how quickly he fades in PL games is a concern.
I don't think having experienced players is a problem in itself, but there needs to be succession planning alongside that. It might just be though that they're going to target central midfield again next year.
McTominay
Can he play against Liverpool
I understand the argument. However, I don't really think we're looking at the same skillset with those two players. This is a signing that is looking to tighten up that midfield and should hopefully mean we have better control in midfield and concede less as a result of this. It improves and solidifies the base.
The lack of goals is a problem that the likes of Hojlund, Rashford, Zirkzee, Bruno, Amad, Garnacho, Mount (Sanco if he's still here) have to sort out. The forwards have to do their job. We do need goals all over the pitch, e.g. from defenders on corners, late runs into the box from midfielders and full backs, but the forwards have to do their job so much better than they currently are.
I agree that we've spent a lot of this summer looking at improving the back/middle of the team, but we now need to look at the creativity. If we can do one more signing, a creative/forward option would be amazing.
As Steve Bruce would say, He can play football, with his feet.
So every player ever.
Liverpool won’t know what hit them on Sunday.
Stylistically, he’s the closest player to Roy Keane we have had since he left. Sniffs out danger and will suit the way ETH wants us to play. Superb signing
Ordinarily if ETH had built this team properly, Ugarte is not a player we’d need. But such is our set up and the numerous players in our team who are seemingly incapable of “ball winning” we almost have to have a player like Ugarte. Hopefully we see a reduction in turn overs and players running through our midfield. Think it’s him and either Casemiro/Mainoo.
So probably best deployed as a defensive no.8, rather than a sitting no.6? Maybe a similar type of set up Chelsea had with Jorginho and Kante?
You could pair him with Casemiro for a defensive team or have Kobbie playing deeper as a DLP in the no.6, but most of the defensive work is covered by Ugarte?
Not his biggest fan, far from it, but wish this lad well.
definitely a bit of Harry Wilson about him
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