How come?
Manuel Ugarte | Romano - he’s signed | Awaiting Club announcement
- Thread starter WeePat
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How about United just being a far bigger club than PSG can ever dream of. Now that they've lost the final player from the trio of Messi, Neymar, Mbappe, they have even less of an appeal within world football.
You have Mainoo who is an outright star as a very progressive 8. You play with Bruno who is essentially a 10, but likes to roam and is very attack oriented.
You are signing one of the ELITE defenders, but he is still very young, and you are highly likely to pair him either with Licha (who is excellent … but still size challenged) or so wind completely new to the team (where the coordination with defenders could be off)
You are not set up to play with a regista instead of a DM on top of all that.
United need an imposing physical presence, who is also composed on the ball and be a reliable outlet that can get the ball forward.
Those are rare. Ugarte would do SO much to tie the team together as a shield for a young defense, a master of the dark arts as well (which is an underrated quality), and still provide a very good technical midfielder. I watched him destroy Bruno and Brazil’s attempts to play through the middle.
Compare that bringing a very small player with questionable defensive skills, seems a ton younger than Ugarte (but isn’t), and ideally wants to be a deep tempo controller (which requires inverting someone to play next to him at the very least… which would change the shape of your teams play)
It doesn’t seem like a hard decision to me.
That’s … what I said : cover stars gone (check). And when I say not just the PL but a team like Man United … I would have thought the size/prestige was implied.
Well said. Two more thing i would like to add, last season it was evident that we had a giant hole in midfield and we needed somebody with legs to fill it, Ugarte would do that, he is the closest player to Gattuso. Secondly, we were easily bullied. With Martinez, De Ligt and Ugarte it would be very tough to bully us.
You’ve warmed me to him! Thank you for the detailed reply as I knew very little about Ugarte.
On Talk of the Devils today he was mentioned as someone who's an option but not as concrete right now as some reports claim as there's no agreement within the club at the moment that he's what we need (I'm paraphrasing a little as I don't remember the exact wording).
Excellent post!
That's something that made the rounds a bit.
I'd imagine the internal assessment is a lot more granular than the broad strokes but I do feel we need more of that kind of defensive minded midfielder in the squad. Even if Casemiro is kept, a starter and performing decently we'd be well advised to have someone to step up in that position. I'd be curious whatever other names would possibly be in contention.
Good post
Truth is if we have the funds, we can do with both Ugarte and Neves. Mainoo is still quite young and shouldn't be playing every game anyways, Neves is the same age as him and should not be playing every game too, It's a squad game. Another point is should Mainoo be out due to injury for any stretch of time during the season, there is no one in the squad that can offer what he does and since he is going to be a focal point of the style Ten Hag intends to implement, we don't want him getting injured disrupting our whole season.
I think just like how the club would like a depth of De ligt, Yoro and Martinez in defence, an Urgate/Mainoo/Neves depth for the two sitting midfielders would not be bad either. It all depends on outgoings, if we lose all of Casemiro, McT and Eriksen, then I hope we sign both of them.
Oh fully agree, people consistently underestimate the value of a top defensive midfielder it's hilarious. After a top goalscorer I'd say it's the 2nd most important position on the pitch. Look at the impact Rodri has everywhere. Not to say that Ugarte is that level, but he is an excellent ball winner and will do so much towards shutting down our midfield and protecting the back 4 even if our tactics continue to suck.
Joao Neves doesn't make sense as we have Mainoo and Bruno. If we sold Bruno and went to pair Mainoo with Neves, great, but we'd still need the Ugarte type.
Funny how Mount is never included in any of these conversations about midfield setups... it's like he doesn't exist.. I guess becuase he didn't exist for most of the season. Hopefully he proves to be a surprise bonus this year.
I just don’t think he does exist as a credible option in any position other than backup to Bruno.
I thought that before and when we signed him, and absolutely nothing I have seen since has changed that opinion.
I wonder if we'll ever get a post mortem interview of what the original idea/plan/intent was for him or if ETH had plans for a midfield of more than 3.
Hopefully he can stay injury free and we get a better idea of how he fits.
Then again Eriksen was thrown into the fire as a 8 of sorts many times so it's maybe just as simple as ETH thinking he could retrofit an offensive player into a false 8.
Yeah I agree with you. Mainoo has ensured that mount will only be a Bruno back up / competition / rotation (very rarely). Mainoo can't play in midfield alone and he's too good to bench for mount.
A total waste of money.
To be fair Mainoo exceeded expectations, that wouldn't have been a certainty last summer he'd have such a hold on being a starter.
Still an apparently mishmashed profile to go after, so far.
People always use Antony as the stick to beat Ten Hags transfer record with, but for me Mount is a far more glaring feck up.
He wasn’t responsible for the fee paid for Antony, and nobody knew just how ineffective he would prove to be in this league.
With Mount - every man in the street and his dog thought “where the feck is he going to play” when they first heard about this deal. It was a complete and utter misuse of key funds which were needed elsewhere.
Uruguayans are like Icelandic players but better so I want him. You'll alwasy getting full commitment and professionalism in training. Anything less isn't accepted.
Hopefully this picks up pace as surely signing a CDM will be the next priority on the list. Unless Ornstein is right and there is a split about whether to go for him.
This signing is of utmost importance right now. Sell McTominay, Eriksen, Casemiro(whoever is needed) to seal it. We are not qualifying for UCL next season without a proper DM.
Square peg, round hole comes to mind, when he isn't injured of course.
I'll never get the signing and I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave next summer.
Agreed.
Not surprised if true, the Yoro signing and the Neves movement to PSG makes this the next logical target to acquire if we are interested.
And Neves was one of their top targets reportedly
Like DeLigt I feel like there is another CM we would rather sign and are keeping this one in our back pocket
Even if we were, now that Yoro is done, we need to close the CM position asap.
Approx 10 days when last of the Euro/Copa players return to training and we should ideally close our key transfers by then.
(and this new management seems to moving fast with that in mind).
Miss having no nonsense pricks patrolling the middle of the field. United have been lacking a real hard man or two for far too long, even better that he has talent and vision.
I actually liked Fellaini. He got so much hate here.
PSG clearly trying to push this. I think we will still need go offload someone in midfield before we move. Greenwood would likely help fund center back #2
INEOS are cooking!! Let’s get this destroyer in!!
Last game he missed was like in 2021 due to covid.
Yeah Casemiro at least maybe McTominay too if we get an offer that suits INEOS
Eriksen as well
No he's a good source.
I think if we lose two we need two.
Or maybe we can have one.. Just thinking it through.
Mainoo (Mount)
Ugarte (Casemiro / his replacement)
Bruno (Zirkzee)
^ of course if Mainoo is unavailable or needs a rest, we can also put Bruno deeper and mount in a 10. The options are there, but Ugarte will need cover, be it Casemiro, Amrabat or whoever.
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