Manuel Ugarte will always remember his first day at Outdated Trafford. It started with Manchester United’s new £50 million midfielder narrowly avoiding being soaked by sprinklers on the pitch as he was launched to the group earlier than the sport with Liverpool and ended with supervisor Erik ten Hag warning it is going to take time for him to get the very best from Ugarte as a result of: “I am not Harry Potter.”
In between his prematch sprinkler escape and Ten Hag’s postmatch feedback, Ugarte watched his new group get dismantled in a 3-0 defeat towards United’s largest rivals, with the participant he has been signed to exchange, Casemiro, substituted at half-time as a result of he was merely incapable of performing the position he used to occupy so majestically for Actual Madrid.
As a primary impression, Ugarte had simply witnessed the soccer model of a horror film.
Having solely accomplished Ugarte’s switch from Paris Saint-Germain on Friday night, United missed the noon deadline to register him in time to face Liverpool. As a consequence, the 23-year-old’s debut is more likely to be towards Southampton on Sept. 14, offering he returns unscathed from Uruguay’s World Cup qualifiers towards Paraguay and Venezuela throughout the worldwide break.
However already, with out having even kicked a ball for United, Ugarte is beneath big strain to be the answer to an issue that has been a continuing beneath Ten Hag: the group’s lack of ability to regulate video games from midfield.
In reality, it is a matter that pre-dates Ten Hag’s time on the membership. It has maybe been extra noticeable, and damaging, throughout Ten Hag’s two full seasons at Outdated Trafford as a result of cavalier nature of the previous Ajax coach’s tactical strategy, however United have uncared for the defensive midfield space since lengthy earlier than Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013.
The hope now’s that, in Ugarte, the membership have lastly signed the participant that they’ve lacked for over a decade. The issue is that he would possibly simply be anticipated to drag off an unimaginable job. He will definitely convey youthful power, athleticism, tenacity, ball-winning potential and defensive consciousness to Ten Hag’s group, with the expectation that he’ll present the lock on the door that neither Casemiro nor Kobbie Mainoo are outfitted to ship.
For a begin, Ten Hag will hope that Ugarte’s presence will keep away from opponents dominating the central third of the pitch as Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch did on Sunday. Ugarte and Mainoo is the apparent defensive midfield axis going ahead. Mainoo, 19, is an distinctive expertise, however he struggles towards the top of video games for United as a result of he has to cowl an excessive amount of floor to compensate for Casemiro’s lack of mobility.
With England at Euro 2024, Mainoo proved to be way more efficient with the safety provided by midfield associate Declan Rice; Ugarte ought to be capable of play the identical position and provides Ten Hag the proper mix on the base of his midfield.
When defeating Manchester Metropolis within the FA Cup ultimate final season, Ten Hag deployed Sofyan Amrabat alongside Mainoo in midfield, with Scott McTominay including extra presence and power. Amrabat and McTominay are each not at United, which is why Casemiro was chosen towards Liverpool.
Casemiro, 32, was as soon as one of many world’s best defensive midfielders, serving to Actual Madrid win 5 Champions League titles throughout his time alongside Luka Modric and Toni Kroos within the membership’s stellar midfield. However time has been no good friend to the Brazil worldwide, and United’s determination to signal him in a £70m switch two years in the past seems to be more and more naïve.
But Casemiro was merely the newest in an extended line of recruitment errors in midfield which have left United so determined for Ugarte to succeed. The final time United signed a world-class defensive midfielder on the peak of his profession was after they recruited the 26-year-old Owen Hargreaves from Bayern Munich in 2007. The England midfielder helped United to UEFA Champions League glory a 12 months later, however accidents prematurely curtailed his profession on the membership and United have since lurched from one mistake to a different on that place.
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Nicol: Manchester United’s issues a lot deeper than Casemiro
Steve Nicol says Casemiro cannot take all of the blame for Manchester United’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool.
Bastian Schweinsteiger (31 when signed), Nemanja Matic (29) and Casemiro (30) have been all previous their finest when recruited by United, whereas Fred, Morgan Schneiderlin and Ander Herrera have been by no means of the standard required to play the defensive midfield position for a membership of United’s stature. The repeated failure to make the precise signings — Manchester Metropolis loved nice success by signing Fernandinho after which Rodri whereas United floundered — even led to the likes of Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek being deployed in defensive midfield and all being ill-equipped for the position.
So a participant with Ugarte’s ability set is lengthy overdue at United, however he’ll solely be capable of remedy the defensive midfield drawback.
Ten Hag will nonetheless want to handle Lisandro Martínez’s defensive recklessness, which has created points for United’s midfielders, and captain Bruno Fernandes should study to cease exposing his deep-lying teammates by leaving big gaps when operating ahead after which displaying much less enthusiasm for monitoring again.
Regardless of Ten Hag’s suggestion, it doesn’t require the magic of Harry Potter to make some apparent tweaks to his group to make sure that it performs because it ought to. The signing of Ugarte is certainly a step in the precise route, however by no means has a defensive midfielder arrived at a brand new membership accompanied by such a frenzy of anticipation as a consequence of the shortcomings of these he has been signed to exchange.