Man Utd star admits he ‘lacks certain things’; is keen to avoid Ten Hag’s Casemiro disasterplan

Manchester United midfielder Manuel Ugarte has said he lacks the defensive qualities required to play centre-back after Uruguay’s loss against Peru.

Ugarte played the full 90 minutes of his nation’s World Cup qualifier on Saturday night in the centre of Marcelo Bielsa’s back three.

Losing 1-0 to Peru was quite a surprise but Uruguay’s form after finishing third at this summer’s Copa America has been very poor.

Bielsa’s side beat Canada on penalties in the match for third place after losing to Colombia in a fiery semi-final.

Since then, they have drawn 1-1 at home to Guatemala and 0-0 to Paraguay, and drawn 0-0 away to Venezuela before Saturday’s defeat against Peru.

Uruguay’s next match is against Ecuador, who boast stars such as Moises Caicedo and Piero Hincapie.

That will be a very tricky encounter for Bielsa, who is under pressure with Brazil and Wednesday’s opponents breathing down their necks in the South American qualifying table.

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Moving Ugarte to centre-back was an interesting tactic against Peru but the Man Utd midfielder played relatively well out of position.

In 90 minutes, he won two tackles, won possession eight times, won nine out of 13 duels, completed 71 passes and completed one take-on.

Statistics say he did well but Ugarte is not sure, saying after the result “I lack certain things as a defender”, warning Man Utd manager Erik ten Hag that playing him in a back four – as he did with poor old Casemiro last season – is not the best option.

“It was not a good match,” Ugarte said. “We did not play well, it was a shame because I still believe that we are much better, but the match was ugly for us.

“The dressing room was strong before the match, the atmosphere was nice, but little by little we faded and we did not show good things in the match.

“Everyone can play and has the conditions to do so, but many times, when changing players it takes a little [time] to adapt. It is not an excuse either, the team’s performance dropped. We need to go deeper, as we saw against Peru, we have to keep working.

“Honestly, I felt good with the ball, but I lack certain things as a defender. These are things that always enrich a player and we will see what happens on Tuesday.”

The Red Devils – who are second in the five-year Premier League net spend table – paid around £50million to sign Ugarte from French champions Paris Saint-Germain in August.

He has not started very well at Old Trafford but can’t be written off yet. It’s early days, folks.

Ugarte might have a new manager soon, though, with Ten Hag – who leads the Premier League sack race – under relentless pressure.

The 3-0 home defeat to Tottenham left the Dutchman staring down the barrel but draws against FC Porto and Aston Villa have kept him in a job…for now.