Manuel Ugarte scout report: PSG star can fix Manchester United midfield issues
Manchester United are reportedly on the verge of agreeing a deal with Paris Saint-Germain that would see Uruguayan midfielder Manuel Ugarte swap Paris for Manchester.
The 23-year-old has been the subject of a summer-long chase – having been earmarked as the outstanding midfield candidate by United’s new recruitment team – led by the club’s Sporting Director, Dan Ashworth.
With the protracted saga finally nearing a conclusion, I take a look at what sort of player United will be getting…
Aggressive ball-winner
Ugarte is predominantly a holding midfielder – and his style of play was badly missing at the heart of United’s midfield last season.
The Uruguay international is highly aggressive and tenacious, he is front-footed and has the engine required to press high up the pitch – but also track back to help teammates.
His combative, tough-tackling nature has seen him compared to the likes of former AC Milan hardman Gennaro Gattuso.
Defensive monster
Despite a mixed campaign in the French capital, Ugarte still ranked in the 99th percentile for tackles per 90 minutes across Europe’s top 5 leagues – and ranked in the top 96 percentile for interceptions.
During his time in Portugal, he topped the list for most tackles in the Primeira Liga for the 2022/23 season – with 98 – before repeating the trick in his sole campaign in Ligue 1 (2023/24) with 121.
The Montevideo native is a proper destroyer-type of profile and would offer Erik ten Hag’s side something different in the middle of the park – shielding their back four.
High energy
The former Sporting Lisbon man is a high intensity/high energy type of player, who is also very athletic.
He is pretty similar in some ways to former Chelsea star N’golo Kanté – with both men equally adept at eating up ground to cover spaces.
Like Kanté, Ugarte also loves to carry the ball through the lines from deep, often dribbling past the first man and driving forward.
Perfect partner for Kobbie?
The 22-cap South American works well in a double-pivot next to a progressive passer – and this could, on paper at least, make him the perfect fit to partner prodigious young talent Kobbie Mainoo in United’s engine-room.
The PSG star is actually not too dissimilar to Casemiro, but would be a much younger, more mobile version – and well suited to Ten Hag’s high-pressing game-model.
The Brazil legend really struggled at times last season – lunging in and missing too many challenges, often leaving his team exposed.
Ugarte seems more than capable of plugging those gaps that Casemiro could not, and this could help enable the press-resistant Mainoo – allowing him to focus on progressing the play.
Au revoir, PSG…
A lot has been made of the former Fénix enforcers spell in Paris – and many have questioned why the French champions are willing to part ways with a player they spent €60 million on just over a year ago.
This can simply be put down to a clash of styles. The Parisien’s manager, Luis Enrique deemed that Ugarte’s playing-style didn’t fully correlate with his own ‘tiki-taka’ philosophy.
The Spanish tactician often favoured more technical ball-playing midfielders in his XI – such as Vitinha, Fabian Ruiz and Warren Zaïre-Emery – leading to the young Uruguay international losing his place in the team.
Conclusion
This seems like a great move for Manchester United. A young, physical floor-raiser – that can have a big impact on the squad.
The Red Devils’ move for the player is an opportunistic one, pouncing on the fact PSG are willing to let him go.
They have identified a certain profile that fits what they are looking for, despite having a long-standing interest in the player – that dates back to his stint at Sporting Lisbon.
Ugarte has made it crystal clear that he only ever wanted to join Manchester United – and has pushed hard for a move in recent weeks.
This seems like the type of character that we need at Old Trafford. Let’s hope a deal gets finalised soon and we can focus on the task at hand of trying to win games of football.
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