I agree and especially because players have bad games now and then so one game doesn’t and can’t sum a player up (although I still comment in these threads!)
25
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 44
- Goals
- 2
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 13
-
Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
I agree and especially because players have bad games now and then so one game doesn’t and can’t sum a player up (although I still comment in these threads!)
Criticism of him seems premature but that's nothing new on the caf. Maguire , Bruno, case, deLigt all have been written off, so basically it's worth nothing.
I find it hard to believe that case plays the way he did yesterday if Ugarte is replaced with mainoo
I find it hard to believe that case plays the way he did yesterday if Ugarte is replaced with mainoo
Good, stats show he is good at it. What I'm saying is he can actually do a lot more of that than we have seen. Dude is a turnover machine.And yet...
Mind you, it may also be it isn't as noticeable because we immediately proceed to do feck all with the ball.
He’s been inconsistent this year. In some games he seems to be everywhere breaking attacks and in others he seems lost. What I have seen so far is that he is technically not great. Not the player we want long term for this position.
I do wonder if he's more suited to a 3 where he can press but not be relied on as much for ball progression. Now he's in a rep he is struggling more.
He was bought to play in a 433. Feel the same way about mazraoui to a certain extent. Bought as a full back and now has to play in a back 3.
He was bought to play in a 433. Feel the same way about mazraoui to a certain extent. Bought as a full back and now has to play in a back 3.
I love his attitude and pressing, proper ball winner. But you see PSG and understand why they did not have place for him and why a lot of people here wanted Neves instead of him. He just looks a better player and somebody we needed more. Fair play to him for the Bruno assist, but i wonder long term if we intend to move to consistent top 4 side with Champions league ambitions we can have a player in the team with such poor technical ability, but will do for now.
I think so, too. When we're in possession, double pivot does not suit him that much.
When Bilbao were reduced to 10 men, he pushed up closer to the goal, positioning himself alongside Bruno and Garnacho. From there, he provided the assist for the third goal. Of course, it's easier to play that way with a numerical advantage, but being closer to goal and having an extra teammate in the attacking line seems to suit him better.
He tends to lose possession under pressure when he's on the ball and closer to the defense.
Won some great tackles high up the pitch that sprang attacks and assisted 2 goals. Yes he lost possession too early on but overall he was key for us.
3 out of his 4 last assists have been really fortunate. One shot that was so awful it ended as a cross for Yoro against Lyon, another awful shot that ended as a pass for Hojlund against Bournemouth and I'm not sure the header was intended to be a pass for Casemiro against Bilbao.
Anyway we'll take them, hopefully the "luck" continues.
Anyway we'll take them, hopefully the "luck" continues.
I've now had a chance to watch the game, with the benefit of knowing the scoreline.
That last bit is relevant in that I can see how being a bag of nerves amplifies any insecurity on the ball, let alone instances we lose the ball. Lindelof and Case teaming up to send Williams through on goal was far worse, but we were 2-0 up by then so easily dismissed.
It really wasn't anywhere near as bad as made out to be, certainly nothing that trumps being involved all four times we hit the back of the net: ball recovery starting the Garnacho offside goal and Hojlund penalty, assist for Case and Bruno. Quite easily a contestant for MotM.
The clear and very specific issue is the link-up with Dorgu. Dorgu isn't a great passer and regularly passes to Ugarte. One ball gets trapped under his foot as he tries to cushion it. It was more a shot than a pass and he loses possession, in midfield, miles away from the goal albeit with Athletic executing the counter swiftly. There's also a diagonal clearance across the box that finds an Athletic player who immediately loses it. Can't see much else he could do with that hospital pass, Dorgu should have instead gone for a much simpler and less compromising pass to Yoro by the touchline. A few other times Bruno tries to pivot with Dorgu but he instead passes back to Ugarte, who loses the ball twice and the other times he doesn't it's usually a boring pass back to Yoro. I'm not blaming Dorgu there, the Athletic defenders always positioned themselves to block the pass back to Bruno, obviously. The relevant overriding issue is that circuit wasn't working at all: too static, predictable and easy to contain.
On that note, not sure why people are bitching about Garnacho. He was lively and probably the one concern keeping their backline pinned back early on when they could have otherwise ran us over given the way we started.
That last bit is relevant in that I can see how being a bag of nerves amplifies any insecurity on the ball, let alone instances we lose the ball. Lindelof and Case teaming up to send Williams through on goal was far worse, but we were 2-0 up by then so easily dismissed.
It really wasn't anywhere near as bad as made out to be, certainly nothing that trumps being involved all four times we hit the back of the net: ball recovery starting the Garnacho offside goal and Hojlund penalty, assist for Case and Bruno. Quite easily a contestant for MotM.
The clear and very specific issue is the link-up with Dorgu. Dorgu isn't a great passer and regularly passes to Ugarte. One ball gets trapped under his foot as he tries to cushion it. It was more a shot than a pass and he loses possession, in midfield, miles away from the goal albeit with Athletic executing the counter swiftly. There's also a diagonal clearance across the box that finds an Athletic player who immediately loses it. Can't see much else he could do with that hospital pass, Dorgu should have instead gone for a much simpler and less compromising pass to Yoro by the touchline. A few other times Bruno tries to pivot with Dorgu but he instead passes back to Ugarte, who loses the ball twice and the other times he doesn't it's usually a boring pass back to Yoro. I'm not blaming Dorgu there, the Athletic defenders always positioned themselves to block the pass back to Bruno, obviously. The relevant overriding issue is that circuit wasn't working at all: too static, predictable and easy to contain.
On that note, not sure why people are bitching about Garnacho. He was lively and probably the one concern keeping their backline pinned back early on when they could have otherwise ran us over given the way we started.
Brentford 4:3 Man Utd
New
Thought that was one of his best games for us
and a rare 90+ minutes played as well
Great performance today. In the last 30 or so he was basically alone in midfield because Eriksen is a complete non factor defensively.
Probably indicator he won't start vs Bilbao. But nice to see strong performance from him.
Probably his best game for the club.
Was a beast in ball recoveries and also showed some lovely footwork at times. Even passed the ball forward with more conviction.
Was a beast in ball recoveries and also showed some lovely footwork at times. Even passed the ball forward with more conviction.
Very solid today. Great performance
That type of game illustrated his strengths well, I think. Lot of middle half recoveries and ground covered.
Great game as a destroyer, must have won the ball back more than anyone.
Not too sure about giving him 90 here, would have thought he'd be one of the first names on the teamsheet for Thursday protecting a lead, despite him being fairly poor in the first leg.
Not too sure about giving him 90 here, would have thought he'd be one of the first names on the teamsheet for Thursday protecting a lead, despite him being fairly poor in the first leg.
This game showed exactly what he's great at. He has elite ball winning ability. We'd have conceded even more if he wasn't on the pitch.
He was great today.
Played midfield by himself, covered a crazy amount of ground. Strong in the tackle and so much more ambitious with his ball carrying and passing. He was our only realiable progressor through the middle for long stretches.
Played midfield by himself, covered a crazy amount of ground. Strong in the tackle and so much more ambitious with his ball carrying and passing. He was our only realiable progressor through the middle for long stretches.
Impressed by that turn of pace he showed when Wissa was played through. Didn’t think he had that in him.
Had a great game!
Goodness he got through an ungodly amount of work out there.
Agreed. Wissa is pretty quick, right? Ugarte matched him stride for stride.
Up there with his best games in a United shirt.
obviously the best United player on the pitch ( above Garnacho), manage to compete physically with Brentford players, got no help from other midfielders.
Very good performance today. One-manned our midfield, won very many balls
The comments I've read this season suggesting Ugarte is slow have always baffled me. He definitely covers ground well.
He generally does, but cause he’s not home grown and cost a bit of money some will never get of his back.
Good game. He’s poor on the ball but at the moment, he’s our only senior midfielder who can cover ground.
Actually thought he did pretty well on the ball today. Some decent turns, kept it under pressure and played the simple balls forward a lot of the time.
Yeah I think so too. Plenty of times he's showed really good recovery pace.
Looks a good player to me
Brilliant today.
That was awesome. Loved his performance. Like I mentioned a few pages before, his on the ball skills are greatly underrated. He was very good bringing the ball out even though he had so little support.
We need more of these types of players in our MF.
We need more of these types of players in our MF.
I liked the performance. Thought he did better on the ball too.
That’s reductive. He cost a wedge. Expecting him to be good on the ball shouldn’t be too much to ask. Any reasonable supporter will be firmly behind him if he continues to put performances in like today though. He’s the sort of player it’s hard not to admire as he works so hard for the team.
But £50M isn’t actually that much is it now a days. We just paid £30M for a lad with hardly any experience at all. Plus I don’t think he’s that bad on the ball in general. It gets down played a lot on here. And if we’re being honest all our players should be better in the ball.
Great performance but the fact he played the full 90 (which hardly ever happens) must mean he’s benched on Thursday. I hope we don’t regret that. When he plays like he did yesterday he’s a great player to have in the team if you need to protect a lead.
I really hate this mentality. £50m is a significant outlay. PSG improved their midfield significantly by selling Ugarte and then buying Neves for basically the same price. The fact that they were so willing to part with Ugarte only a year after signing him should’ve been a red flag for us. Not that I expect every signing to be a world beater or that it’s all about missing out on Neves. But Sander Berge went for less than half that price this summer and would’ve improved us the same or more than Ugarte IMO.
But none of this is the fault of the player and again as I said Ugarte is easy to root for as he works so hard for the team and his physicality is something we were missing in midfield. And to be clear I’m not going after you specifically but rather the mindset that such an outlay is insignificant. The point is that we should be doing much better with our signings. We can’t throw money around the way we used to, especially now with PSR in place. We need to be much more shrewd in the market going forward.