Man United horror present piles stress on new arrival Ugarte already

Manuel Ugarte will always remember his first day at Outdated Trafford.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 would take time for him to get one of the 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 staff get dismantled in a 3-0 defeat towards United’s greatest 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 Real Madrid.

As a primary impression, Ugarte had simply witnessed the soccer model of a horror film.

Having solely accomplished his switch from Paris Saint-Germain on Friday night, United missed the noon deadline to register Ugarte in time to face Liverpool. As a consequence, the 23-year-old’s debut is prone to be towards Southampton on Sept. 14, offering he returns unscathed from Uruguay‘s World Cup qualifiers towards Paraguay and Venezuela in the course of the worldwide break.

However already, with out having even kicked a ball for United, Ugarte is below big stress to be the answer to an issue that has been a continuing below Ten Hag: the staff’s lack of ability to regulate video games from midfield.

In fact, 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 It has maybe been extra noticeable, and damaging, throughout Ten Hag’s two full seasons at Outdated Trafford because of the cavalier nature of the previous Ajax coach’s tactical method, however United have uncared for the defensive midfield space since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 may simply be anticipated to tug off an unimaginable job. He will definitely carry youthful power, athleticism, tenacity, ball-winning potential and defensive consciousness to Ten Hag’s staff, with the expectation that he’ll present the lock on the door that neither Casemiro nor Kobbie Mainoo are geared up 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 plain defensive midfield axis going ahead. Mainoo, 19, is an distinctive expertise, however he struggles towards the tip of video games for United as a result of he has been having to cowl an excessive amount of floor to compensate for Casemiro’s lack of mobility.

With England at Euro 2024, Mainoo proved to be rather more efficient with the safety provided by midfield accomplice Declan Rice; Ugarte ought to have the ability to play the identical position and provides Ten Hag the right mix on the base of his midfield.

When defeating Manchester City within the FA Cup remaining final season, Ten Hag deployed Sofyan Amrabat alongside Mainoo in midfield, with Scott McTominay including extra presence and power. Amrabat and McTominay are each now 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 to 5 Champions League titles throughout his time alongside Luka Modric and Toni Kroos within the membership’s stellar midfield. However time has been no buddy to the Brazil worldwide and United’s choice to signal him in a £70m switch two years in the past appears to be like more and more naïve.

But Casemiro was merely the most recent in a protracted line of recruitment errors in midfield which have left United so determined for Ugarte to succeed. The final time that 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 yr 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 skillset is lengthy overdue at United, however he’ll solely have the ability to clear up the defensive midfield downside.

Ten Hag will nonetheless want to deal with Lisandro Martínez‘s defensive recklessness, which has created points for United’s midfielders, and captain Bruno Fernandes should be taught to cease exposing his deep-lying teammates by leaving big gaps when working 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 staff to make sure that it performs because it ought to. The signing of Ugarte is certainly a step in the precise path, 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.