Football Today
·17 August 2024
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·17 August 2024
Manchester United are poised to sign their main midfield target before the transfer deadline.
The Red Devils have identified Paris Saint-Germain’s Manuel Ugarte as their first-choice to bolster their midfield, but they are reluctant to meet the £51 million asking price.
The club are likely to push for a discount on the valuation and Marca today (page 22) report that ‘everything indicates’ that ‘he will end up at Manchester United’.
Casemiro started in the holding midfield position against Fulham. He was brilliant in an attacking sense with two big chances created. He had three shots on goal.
However, he was vulnerable defensively with his positioning. His aggressive style created space between the attack and defence for Fulham to launch counter-attacks.
The Brazilian won only 54 percent of his duels. He lost possession on 14 occasions and was dribbled past two times. The club need an upgrade on him in our opinion.
Ugarte, who has been described as ‘tireless‘ by PSG’s official website, would be an ideal signing.
He is much better with the ball at his feet than Casemiro. The Uruguayan had a passing accuracy of 91 percent last term compared to Casemiro’s average of 83 percent.
The former Sporting CP man lost possession on less than eight occasions per league outing. He also won an impressive 3.9 tackles with 7.2 recoveries per appearance.
Ugarte was in-and-out of the starting plans of manager Luis Enrique earlier this year and PSG could be persuaded to provide a small discount, having signed Joao Neves recently.
We believe the transfer saga could go down to the wire. United could secure a deal for Ugarte on deadline day for a reduced fee or on loan with an obligation to buy for £51m.
Stats from Transfermarkt.com & Sofascore.com