Manchester United<\/a> last year, he was asked whether Manuel Ugarte was setting the standard in the dressing room and responded: \u201cIt is his style, he is from Uruguay, that can help. He is a good example, a lot of players are giving their best.”<\/p>\nAmorim worked with Ugarte at Sporting Lisbon and, naturally, favoured the midfielder in his first few months at Old Trafford, but Ugarte has gone from being an “example” to being on borrowed time. The bottom line is Ugarte has not been good enough during his 15 months in Manchester for a player who commanded a \u20ac50million (\u00a342.3m) transfer fee with a further \u20ac10m (\u00a38.5m) in add-ons.<\/p>\n
Ugarte was expected to be a big winner from Amorim’s appointment. He had played his best football under Amorim at Sporting, and the rekindling of that relationship was expected to benefit him.<\/p>\n
However, Amorim will likely be disappointed with the current version of Ugarte, as he probably doesn’t recognise him from the player who excelled in Portugal’s top flight. Ugarte has made just two starts in the Premier League this season. The 24-year-old has played just 346 minutes across 10 appearances (seven from the bench) in all competitions.<\/p>\n
Amorim has voted with his feet by not starting Ugarte. Casemiro’s superb form has been a factor but Ugarte has been poor when he has been given a chance. Before the international break, Ugarte allowed Tottenham forward Wilson Odobert to burst towards the penalty area and Matthijs de Ligt was turned in the box by Mathys Tel.<\/p>\n
The fingers were pointed at De Ligt, but Ugarte was far too weak, allowing Odobert to breeze beyond him, despite being positioned ahead of the Spurs man when he received the ball.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_GettyImages-2245799381.jpg\")
Ugarte pictured against Tottenham.<\/p>\n
Ugarte could have done better for Grimsby Town’s opening goal in the Carabao Cup debacle. There were multiple stages at which the goal could have been prevented, but it was concerning to see Ugarte fail to react quickly to losing possession of the ball at the beginning of the move.<\/p>\n
The midfielder collided with Amad on the halfway line. There were 11 seconds between Ugarte going to the ground and Grimsby’s opening goal. He reached the penalty area as the ball left Charles Vernam’s boot, suggesting he could have got closer if he had reacted immediately.<\/p>\n
Ugarte bounced back after that defeat to emerge with some credit against Manchester City in September, and he was decent against Chelsea, but most of his contributions have been disappointing.<\/p>\n
New signings should be given time before concrete judgments are made, but no excuses can be made when a player has entered their second year at United.<\/p>\n
Ugarte has been given time to settle and adapt to his surroundings. He is now held to an even higher standard. He will be aware his performances have not been good enough, and may even feel that he could be on the move at the end of the campaign if his situation does not change.<\/p>\n
Marcelo Bielsa recalled Ugarte to the Uruguay squad for the November break after overlooking him in October, but Ugarte could be overlooked again for his nation if he is not playing.<\/p>\n
The only way Ugarte can play more for United is by performing when he gets the opportunity. He was supposed to be the successor to Casemiro, but the player he was signed to replace is performing better. Casemiro is 33 and Ugarte should be able to offer more.<\/p>\n
Ugarte is on the path to be remembered among the many underwhelming United signings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Man Utd midfielder Manuel Ugarte has struggled this season and it feels like he’s on borrowed time at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307498,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[4566,22709,1084,403,99],"class_list":["post-307497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-manuel-ugarte","tag-premier-league","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/0_GettyImages-2245653353.jpg\")
Manuel Ugarte warms up against Tottenham.(Image: 2025 Manchester United FC)<\/p>\n