How good is Manuel Ugarte and is he right for Manchester United?

Manchester United fans have become well-acquainted with the name Manuel Ugarte this summer transfer window.

The club have been monitoring the 23-year-old for several weeks, only to cool interest in the player after Paris Saint-Germain set an asking price of €60million (£51.1m; $66.6m) at the start of August. Yet as the window enters its final days, Ugarte remains a possible option for United as Erik ten Hag looks to bolster his options in defensive midfield.

There is not yet enough smoke for The Athletic to call a fire and say a deal is imminent. But for those who wish to be ahead of the curve, here’s a cheat sheet on the player and what he might bring.

Here’s what Ugarte is good at

Signed by Sporting Lisbon in 2021 to take over from Joao Palhinha, who joined Fulham, Ugarte excelled as a tough-tackling ball winner in Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 before eventually attracting the attention of PSG and Chelsea. The French champions won that bidding war in the summer of 2023 and Ugarte had a promising start to life in France.

“Often when I win the ball back, I’m happy,” he said in an interview with PSG’s official website early in the 2023-24 season. “But as the play goes on, I start hoping for a goal. I say to myself I want it to be a goal.”

Ugarte is a defensive midfielder who prides himself in how he defends. He combines high athleticism — he can be frighteningly quick in a foot race — with defensive intensity when looking to tackle and intercept the ball.

Often best in a double pivot working next to a progressive passer, Ugarte can sense an opportunity to regain possession, and if so he will go hunting for it. He is fond of snapping into tackles should an opponent take a heavy touch of the ball, and he enjoys picking the pockets of attacking players who haven’t properly scanned the situation.

Ugarte has been more of a piano carrier than a piano player throughout his football career, focusing his game on regaining possession for his team as much as possible before making a simple pass to someone more creative. His hopes for a goal unfortunately remain just that; he has rarely been a consistent goal threat for any of his clubs and boasts only four goals in 200 senior club matches.

But if you want someone to do the dog work of defending in the middle of the park, there are worse players to turn to than Ugarte. He is a player whose energy lends itself well to warrior-like cult hero status.

“When we have the ball, it’s a game,” he added in that interview with PSG’s website. “When we don’t, it’s a fight.”

What he’s not so good at — and why PSG are willing to sell him

Ugarte’s arrival at PSG coincided with the new managerial regime of Luis Enrique. The Spanish coach — who has worked with defensive midfielders of the calibre of Sergio Busquets and Rodri — is known for favouring a possession-based style of football. One that demands its midfielders be comfortable both receiving and passing the ball under pressure.

Ugarte’s conservative passing style made him an odd stylistic fit for the manager’s approach. He averaged 4.1 progressive passes and 0.7 key passes per 90 in Ligue 1, well below the league average for midfielders of 5.4 and 1.2 respectively.

In addition to this, his “see the ball, try to win the ball” approach to defending means he can often be pulled out of position; something that caused difficulties for a manager as detail-oriented as Luis Enrique.

“(He can improve) many things,” said Enrique in late autumn 2023. “Everyone can improve. Every player. Manuel Ugarte has been a revelation for many supporters. I have seen him play well in the past. He is a great signing by (PSG sporting director) Luis Campos and a player with so much room for improvement going forward (and) in defence.

“He is a young player with character, which is very important for us and that continuity that we need with our positional play. He is one of the surprises at the start of the season.”

PSG’s 2-1 defeat to AC Milan in the Champions League in early November illustrated the mismatch between Ugarte’s full-throttle approach to football and Enrique’s desire for positional discipline and progressive work in possession.

Deployed as the deepest midfielder behind Vitinha and Warren Zaire-Emery, Ugarte was overrun by the clever passing moves of the Italian side, with Ruben Loftus-Cheek and others using one-two passing to drag him out of position before attacking the space he had vacated when going after the ball.

Ugarte would win only three out of his 15 duels that day and was booked for a cynical challenge on Theo Hernandez. He was eventually substituted for Fabian Ruiz on the hour mark. He would feature in only one more Champions League game for PSG that season, with Enrique preferring to use Vitinha, Zaire-Emery and Fabian Ruiz for every knockout game on the team’s run to the semi-finals.

Beyond the stylistic differences, it is also worth questioning if Ugarte simply struggled to adapt to a more intense top-five league in general.

His defensive numbers with respect to tackle and duel timing seemed to suffer, and he often seemed just a millisecond late to challenge for the ball, giving away fouls like the ones below. In most of these sequences, he either leaves too much space for the defence to cover or makes fouls when the attacker’s options are limited.

This could be seen in his statistics as well. Compared with his final season at Sporting, Ugarte suffered declines in success while tackling dribblers (54 per cent in 2022-23 vs 48 per cent in 2023-24), interceptions (2.2 vs 1.9 per 90), recoveries (9.4 vs 8.4 per 90) and aerial duel success (63 per cent vs 54 per cent).

He also looked less confident with the ball at his feet and while taking players on, moving sideways rather than forward, which resulted in losses of possession, with some of these also leading to shots that were saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma.

What could he bring to United?

Ugarte’s ball-winning style could see Ten Hag revert to a style of play seen at United in sections of the 2022-23 season.

The Uruguay international is a proven ball-winner who would go some way to offer some of the defensive security seen in Casemiro (albeit he is not as good in the air, or with the ball at his feet).

As there is no outstanding, all-in-one midfield partner for Kobbie Mainoo this summer, Ugarte could be viewed as a provisional defensive midfielder while further funds can be accumulated for a more ideal long-term target in the summers to come. The signings of Joshua Zirkzee and Leny Yoro give reason to believe United are looking to spend this summer signing younger (25 and under) players who marry impressive technical qualities with stronger physical skills.

The squad at the close of this summer window may be taller, more assertive and on a cheaper wage bill than that which came before.

Ugarte at United would be a pressing and counter-pressing force from central midfield. Recent signings Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui mean Ten Hag has further options to help with ball progression and build-up play in defence. In theory, a back four containing the former Bayern Munich players along with Lisandro Martinez and Diogo Dalot should mean Ugarte only has to focus on ball retention and circulation when in possession. In that context, his short sideways passing becomes a help rather than a hindrance.

Ugarte’s love of defending and pure athleticism should help bolster a United side that has had a soft underbelly in recent years. He also has a fantastic fitness record that should mean he is ready for the marathon-length Premier League season.

Ugarte is not yet the finished article. He likely has layers to his game that he has yet to unlock. He could follow a trajectory similar to Gennaro Gattuso with a fair wind and a good bit of luck. The question is whether he can find his Andrea Pirlo. Someone like Mainoo after a few more years of development, perhaps?

Is there anything that United fans should be concerned about?

There is a case to be made for whether Ugarte is best suited to be a destroyer in a relatively lower-possession system rather than in one with plenty of possession.

Earlier this year, Ugarte spoke about the differences in pace of play under Enrique and his Uruguay head coach Marcelo Bielsa. Bielsa, appointed last May, has replicated the style that brought him praise from English football fans during his time at Leeds United, with an emphasis on speed while moving the ball up the pitch.

Uruguay averaged just 53 per cent possession at this year’s Copa America — a tournament in which Ugarte impressed — but 21 per cent of their passes went forward, in contrast to PSG, who had 63 per cent possession in the Champions League last season but with only 14 per cent of their total passes going forward.

For context, United, who endured a poor 2023-24 in league play, averaged 50 per cent possession and 33 per cent of their passes went forward.

Ugarte’s final season at Sporting also suggested he works better in a system that relies more on quick movement rather than intricate build-up play. The table below compares the two clubs (league matches only) for whom he has played as well as Uruguay (Copa America 2024 only) across the last two years in key metrics related to quick ball progression. It shows that both Sporting, who enjoyed plenty of possession like PSG, and Uruguay preferred to move through the gears at pace when in possession.

It is far too early to make a definitive comparison to the 2024-25 iteration of United in the same regard. However, against Fulham last Friday, they averaged numbers much closer to 2022-23 Sporting and Bielsa’s Uruguay than they did to last season’s PSG, which should be encouraging.

Ten Hag’s side had 56 per cent possession and 31 per cent of their passes went forward. They pressed high up the pitch and averaged 4.8 passes per possession, with most of their attacking touches on the wings (39 per cent on either flank) rather than down the middle (22 per cent), which could make Ugarte’s conservative passing an asset in build-up.

There is no way to tell if this is the approach United will take for the rest of the season. If they move to a system that relies on patient build-up, Ugarte could stick out like a sore thumb.

His PSG stint seemed to hint that he did not adequately adapt to the increased pace and physicality of a top-five league. Some of this may have been stylistic, but it is tough to pinpoint that as the sole reason for his performances. How might he cope with the blood, mud and thunder of the Premier League?

United fans are unlikely to have forgotten the acres of space their opponents could target in midfield last season. The hope is for Ugarte to remedy that, but if he goes ball-hunting high up the pitch, those problems may return.

Are there any alternatives?

Well, we did a piece earlier this transfer market on the topic.

United are thought to have considered a number of midfield options to help deputise — or even succeed — Casemiro in the defensive midfield area. One player under consideration is Sander Berge, who Burnley are prepared to sell, but as The Athletic reported in Tuesday’s Dealsheet, he now seems to be headed to Fulham.

A good defensive midfielder makes a lot of tackles to win the ball back for his side. A great one knows where best to stand on a corner kick to ensure their team is not susceptible to a quick counter.

INEOS have made several smart decisions since their minority investment in the club. This summer will see how good they are at making difficult ones.

Additional reporting: Anantaajith Raghuraman

(Top photo: ANP via Getty Images)