‘WHITE WARRIOR’: Man Utd star Manuel Ugarte made a ‘dominant’ performance in Uruguay vs Venezuela

New Manchester United signing Manuel Ugarte produced a dominant performance in the middle of the park as Uruguay and Venezuela played out a goalless draw at Estadio Monumental de Maturín.

Ugarte was officially announced as a United player on transfer deadline day. He joined the club from Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain after falling out of favour under Luis Enrique.

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Although Ugarte hasn’t played for the Red Devils yet, he is anticipated to contribute when the team plays Southampton on Saturday.

Prior to that game, Ugarte excelled for Uruguay against Venezuela in their World Cup qualifying encounter, creating a strong case for Ten Hag to give him the starting nod at St Mary’s on Saturday.

The 23-year-old played all 90 minutes against Venezuela and during that time, had 57 touches of the ball to his name.

Ugarte attempted 41 total passes and found his teammates 34 times, managing an individual pass completion rate of 83%.

He tried to ping six long balls and successfully connected on three occasions. He fired one shot, which was on-target and demanded that Venezuela goalkeeper Rafael Romo swing into immediate action.

The United No.25 embarked on three dribbles and completed all of them.

Defensively is where Ugarte thrives and he demonstrated this perfectly well against Venezuela as he won seven of the 11 ground duels he delved into.

The former PSG man was required to contest just one duel in the air and he came out on top.

He made one clearance and three times as many interceptions. Ugarte put in an impressive four tackles.

(Stats obtained from Sofascore)

That he played all 90 minutes on this occasion and excelled, suggests that Ugarte is more than ready to be thrust straight into the mix when United meet Southampton.

UtdTruthful on X: "FT | Venezuela 0-0 Uruguay 🇺🇾 Manuel Ugarte: 90 minutes, 4 tackles, 8 duels won, 3 interceptions, 1 clearance, 3/3 succ. dribbles, 83% pass accuracy. #MUFC https://t.co/6rwJVYTBPu" / X