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“Leave the football before the football leaves you.” That was the sentence Jamie Carragher reserved for a certain Manchester United player by the name of Casemiro back in May 2024.

It’s safe to say that the Brazilian, once a football legend, a serial winner at Real Madrid, had seen his powers wane.

He was making countless mistakes, looked like he was running through treacle and was the shadow of a player who had featured on 336 occasions for Madrid.

18 months on and Casemiro looks like a legandary player again. He may not be capable of featuring for a period of 90 minutes but the 2025/26 campaign has arguably been his best since moving to Old Trafford.

The 33-year-old is making a huge impact, notably scoring on three occasions and registering an assist. He’s finally come good in United colours.

However, the fact that he can’t last 90 minutes is the problem. His backup in the shape of Manuel Ugarte continues to struggle.

Why it's time for Ugarte to leave Man Utd

In the summer of 2024, INEOS spent a great deal on bringing the bullish Uruguayan to Old Trafford, as much as £42m.

He was seen as the heir to Casemiro, someone who could fix their lack of energy and tenacity in the middle of the park.

The big Brazilian was floundering and the more minute Ugarte was here to fix the problem. Yet, he has been more of a hindrance, particularly as Casemiro has returned to form.

So far this term, the midfield veteran has only completed one 90 minutes in the Premier League and in a bid to see out the game, Ruben Amorim has usually tried to rely on Ugarte. However, the South American has been anything but reliable.

Arsenal

65

Fulham

53

Burnley

72

Man City

Did not start

Chelsea

45

Brentford

Suspended

Sunderland

85

Liverpool

58

Brighton

70

Nott’m Forest

Was not subbed

Spurs

72

With the 24-year-old out of the team, the Red Devils have scored 15 goals at a rate of twice per 90 and have conceded eight times, once per 90 minutes.

However, with Ugarte in the team, Amorim’s side have scored just four times, 1.3 per 90 minutes and have shipped ten goals, a whopping 3.2 per 90.

The data is clear; United are a poorer side when the big-money midfielder is in the team. While he has come on and helped his teammates to victories over Chelsea, Sunderland, Liverpool and Brighton, he has also come on and been a hindrance.

When he entered the action at the weekend in the 2-2 draw with Spurs, it was 1-0 to United at the time. In the 3-1 defeat to Brentford, he came on at 2-1. During the 1-1 draw with Fulham, Amorim’s charges were leading 1-0 when Ugarte was brought off the bench. To make matters worse, he also started the 3-0 loss to rivals Manchester City.

So, why do things go so wrong when he’s on the field? Well, his inability to break up the play and anticipate what happens on the field is a huge issue. That was seen during the draw with Spurs on Saturday when Ugarte simply let Wilson Odobert breeze past him in the build-up to Mathys Tel’s equaliser.

With Kobbie Mainoo on the bench, it does beg the question, why Ugarte? While the Uruguay international is the more traditional holding midfielder, they need more energy and legs when Casemiro heads to the bench. Mainoo would bring that in abundance.

Saying that, the academy graduate isn’t the only Ugarte solution up Amorim’s sleeve. Another future superstar at Carrington is getting ready to make an impact.

Man United's surprise Ugarte replacement

Cutting their losses on the former PSG player would be disastrous from a business point of view but it really does feel as though United need a refresh in midfield.

Chalkboard

Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Casemiro has made great improvements this term but he is not getting any younger and if INEOS are planning to spend big in the future then it must be in a central area.

Players like Brighton superstar Carlos Baleba and Nottingham Forest’s Geordie midfielder, Elliot Anderson, have both been linked with a move. They would be fabulous signings too.

Yet, a ready-made solution could present itself at Carrington. In the form of 19-year-old Sekou Kone, United may well have already signed their dream replacement for Ugarte.

Kone arrived at Man United in the summer of 2024. He was not a marquee arrival, far from it. There was very little fanfare for a teenager who had signed in a £1m deal from Malian side Guidars FC.

An exciting midfield player, the youngster had attracted the attention of United scouts during Mali’s run to the semi-finals of the U17 World Cup in 2023. Since then, he has failed to earn any senior game time under Amorim but he looks like a mighty fine prospect.

Kone featured on 14 occasions for the U21s last season but his prospects of football in 2025/26 have so far been dampened by a fractured eye socket. He has played just one match in the opening exchanges of the ongoing campaign but he is now back in training and first-team training at that. Amorim has already shelved plans of a loan spell, such is the potential in this young midfield player.

So, what’s he all about? Well, a defensive midfielder by trade, he is “uber composed on the ball and so press resistant” in the words of Como scout, Ben Mattinson.

Mattinson continued: “He’s got a tight turn radius and rides challenges well when carrying the ball.” On that evidence, he certainly sounds more promising than Ugarte.

He possesses an exciting ball-winning prowess and has an enormous physical ceiling that Mattinson suggests “is something Manchester United need more of in order for Amorim’s man-to-man press to work effectively.”

On that evidence, it’s hardly a surprise that fellow scout, Antonio Mango, has explained that Kone has “the skillset to be a beast under Amorim.”

This is a player who doesn’t just look capable of ending Ugarte’s career at Old Trafford, but potentially also Casemiro’s.

The spinning pitch in Pune seems like a reaction to the seaming pitch in Bengaluru and its come back to bite them

Deivarayan Muthu25-Oct-20241:37

Manjrekar: Kohli’s perception of length seems to be an issue

Skittled for 46 by fast bowlers in seaming conditions under cloudy skies in Bengaluru.Skittled for 156 by spin on a dry, turning pitch under cloudless skies in Pune.After two collapses in contrasting conditions, India are on the verge of losing their first Test series at home since December 2012, when Alastair Cook’s England toppled them. It feels like a storied era might be coming to an end.Mitchell Santner and Glenn Phillips, who aren’t specialist spinners in Test cricket, outshone R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar. New Zealand also outbatted India in Pune.Related

'Flatline' Mitchell Santner peaks with Kohli's wicket

Santner, Latham give NZ a shot at maiden series win in India

While Ryan ten Doeschate, the assistant coach, dismissed notions that it was a “desperate measure” to prepare a pitch that would help spinners create uncertainty simply by landing the ball on a good length – and bring in the extra offie from outside the squad to exploit it better – it seems like an overreaction to their collapse in Bengaluru. India were looking to take New Zealand’s quicks out of the game and then trust their batters to deal with the spinners but again when one ball turns and another doesn’t – even though they pitched in the exact same spot – batting becomes a lottery. Shubman Gill was lbw to a straight ball soon after seeing one rip past his outside edge. Rishabh Pant was bowled by a short ball that shot low.Perhaps India might look back and wonder if they could have done more to throw Santner and Phillips off their lines and lengths. A lot of batters, especially those visiting the subcontinent, turn to the sweep shot to accomplish this. New Zealand were no different. On the opening day, even though there was a short third, and a square point led to dissuade Devon Conway from playing that shot, he went for it anyway and prospered. Overall, New Zealand scored 87 runs off 67 balls using various varieties of the sweep across both innings. It has cost them just the two wickets.3:12

Why have India’s batters struggled in home Tests?

India had even more reason to try and upset the bowlers because by the time they batted it was difficult to be sure what the ball would do. Would it spin? Would it go straight on? Would it stay low? They tried to answer these questions with a vertical bat. That’s how they’ve had success playing spin. They went to the sweep only 17 times and got 24 runs for the loss of Virat Kohli. Increasingly, they just ended up stuck in the crease, allowing Santner and co. to keep hitting the drier, good-length spots.Morne Morkel, India’s bowling coach, admitted that New Zealand’s attacking approach disrupted their plans. New Zealand had similarly disrupted Sri Lanka’s plans in Galle with their sweeps.”Yeah, I think I must give credit to New Zealand, I think the way they’ve adapted to conditions, the way they’ve blocked out what is in front of them and just played the game has been incredible so far in this series,” Morkel said. “I think definitely in Bangalore and here, playing those sessions, playing those important moments, they’ve done it better than us at the moment, and that’s one of the reasons why they’re on top of this game at the moment as well.”They’re creating pressure with the ball, they’re putting our batters under pressure by sweeping well, reverse-sweeping well, so they’re a team that always plan well and they go into tours and really leave no stone unturned, so I’m not surprised with the way they’re playing at the moment.”Santner, who was rolling out some sweeps during New Zealand’s training session on the eve of the Test, said that they had made a concerted effort to take some calculated risks and attack India’s spinners.”We know how challenging it can be in these conditions,” Santner said. “We’ve seen India squeeze a lot of teams for a long time and I guess it was pleasing with the bat was guys trying to fire some shots and play some sweeps and take on the bowlers because we know on the flip side, as a bowler, if guys are using their feet or going back or sweeping it kind of can upset your length a little bit. You know, in the past we’ve come here and just tried to block it out and, you know, eventually one’s got your name on it.”The collapse on Friday will sting, especially with New Zealand finding ways to score and push their lead up to 301, and there will be serious introspection – both in terms of the options they chose with the bat and the problems they had with the ball. But these events are part of a team’s life cycle.”Every few years there comes a time when key players are not in their prime,” Sanjay Manjrekar said on . “And you can clearly say Rohit Sharma is not in his prime right now so is Virat Kohli. That happened in 2011, when India suffered defeats in England 4-0 and Australia 4-0. There you had many senior players who were on the wane, and they didn’t quite deliver and India suffered. But here there’s been a nice transition. There’s Gill, there’s [Yashasvi] Jaiswal, there’s Sarfaraz [Khan], there’s Rishabh Pant. It’s been a nice transition.”But I guess somewhere in a situation like this, when New Zealand were throwing some really difficult questions at India, experienced players have to be at the forefront and they haven’t quite contributed. Hardly any contributions from Rohit Sharma in the first innings. From Virat Kohli as well and that is somewhere coming into play.”From 2012 to 2024, India were invincible at home. With every series, they kept finding ways to outlast their opponents, seemingly immune to the way good things are supposed to work. Crowds all over the country had gotten used to this. The 20,000 or so in Pune were screaming their heads off as the second wicket fell. Because it wasn’t so much a success for the opposition. It was the intro to their hero. The DJ played Oscar winner AR Rahman’s as Kohli walked out to the middle. But this script wasn’t like the others, and now there is every chance that in the next two days – or maybe even less – a proud and unmatched streak will finally come to an end.

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