The fact that Manuel Ugarte was asked to play as an emergency center defense during Uruguay’s loss to Peru was something that he stated he did not appreciate.
This summer, Manchester United paid Paris Saint-Germain £51 million to acquire the services of a player who has had a lackluster start to his career with the club.
Due to the fact that his move was delayed until the very last minute of the summer transfer window, the combative midfielder was not assisted in any way by the fact that he was forced to play for a team that was battling to find its form.
During the recent 3-0 thrashing that the Red Devils received at the hands of Tottenham, Ugarte appeared to be completely lost. However, two straight draws against Porto and Aston Villa seems to have won United manager Erik ten Hag a reprieve from the criticism that he has been dealing with.
However, any thoughts that a return to more familiar settings would inspire a return to form for Ugarte proved to be misguided earlier this week when Marcelo Bielsa forced him into a role that he was not even familiar with.
The 23-year-old player, who was asked to play as part of a three-man defense, was unable to adjust to the requirements of a new position and admitted after the game that he “lacked certain things as a defender.”
ESPN reported that he stated, “It was not a good match.” We did not play very well, which is unfortunate since I continue to feel that we are much better than we were, but the encounter was a disappointing one for us. Before the game, the locker room was full of energy, and the mood was pleasant; nevertheless, as the game progressed, we gradually lost our strength, and we did not do well despite our best efforts.
Everyone is able to participate and is in a position to do so; nevertheless, when players are switched, it frequently takes some time for the game to adjust to the new participants. Not only is this not an excuse, but the performance of the squad has also declined. We need to go farther, and just as we did against Peru, we need to keep working through this.
“To tell you the truth, I felt good with the ball, but there are certain things that I cannot do as a defender.” These are the kinds of things that always make a player better.
In the meanwhile, Dutch icon Marco van Basten is concerned that United have thrown away their money, regardless of the position that Ugarte is assigned to for his team.
When you consider the final player, Ugarte, who was purchased for fifty million pounds, you could ask yourself, “How could you possibly consider spending that much money on that?” That is a really strange occurrence. This was said by Van Basten on the ‘Rondo’ show on Ziggo Sport.
After it was claimed that Van Basten did not know Ugarte very well because he had only seen him play in two games for United, the former striker for Ajax and AC Milan responded by saying, “No, but I could already see in that match that he’s not even worth a quarter of that amount.”
