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Manchester United’s Manuel Ugarte played in the middle of a back three defensive line for Uruguay in the early hours of this morning as the Celeste slumped to a shock 1-0 defeat to Peru in Lima.
It was a disappointing performance for Marco Bielsa’s men, who would have hoped to move into second place in the Conmebol World Cup qualifying table after 10-man Bolivia had shocked Colombia the day before.
But Uruguay were impotent in front of goal, with the likes of Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez and former United man Facu Pellistri, who came on as a second half sub, unable to seriously threaten Pedro Gallese’s goal.
Pressed into a highly unfamiliar role – he had previously only played one professional game at centre back – Ugarte performed reasonably well in the game.
He recorded an 89% passing accuracy, won six out of eight ground duels and three out of five aerial duels for an overall 69% success rate. His 93 touches was an indication of how influential he was in the game.
Ugarte did make one error in the the first half, losing possession just before half time, but he recovered the ball himself to snuff out the danger.
More importantly, he also failed to stop Quispe whipping in the 88th minute cross that Miguel Araujo headed against Sergio Rochet and into the Uruguayan net.
El gol de Araujo para el 1-0 de Perú 🇵🇪 contra Uruguay 🇺🇾.pic.twitter.com/XUz0UzK2aw
— VarskySports (@VarskySports) October 12, 2024
Whether the performance will give United manager Erik ten Hag encouragement to deploy Ugarte in a back three at United remains to be seen.
There were reports this week that Ineos were considering asking the manager to switch from four to three at the back.
And with Harry Maguire and Leny Yoro injured and Matthijs de Ligt and Lisandro Martinez struggling for form, having an extra option at centre back could be very tempting for the Dutchman going forward.
Stats via Sofascore.com.
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