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.
Ugarte has yet to play for the Red Devils but he’s expected to play a part when the club returns to action on Saturday against Southampton.
Ahead of that match, Ugarte was brilliant for Uruguay in their World Cup qualifier vs. Venezuela, making a strong claim to be afforded a start by Ten Hag 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.
