Manchester United were dumped out of the FA Cup at the hands of Fulham, while Manuel Ugarte was one of the first performers on the afternoon.
The Red Devils found themselves trailing at the end of the first half as Calvin Cassey beat Noussair Mazraoui to nod the ball home from close range.
In the second period, Ruben Amorim didn’t wait too long to ring the changes. He turned to Alejandro Garnacho as he looked to add more quality to the final third, bringing in the young Argentine at the expense of the disappointing Ugarte. This proved to be the right call as the 20-year-old played a significant role in the equalizer, freeing up Diogo Dalot who set up his compatriot Bruno Fernandes.
Sadly for the Red Devils, this wasn’t enough to book their place in the quarter-finals, as Fulham prevailed on penalty shootouts, as Victor Lindelof and Joshua Zirkzee failed to convert.
After the contest, Manchester Evening News journalist Samuel Luckhurst identified Ugarte as the worst player on the pitch alongside Rasmus Hojlund, with both players receiving 4/10.
Manuel Ugarte endures disappointing outing against Fulham
Perhaps the Uruguayan wasn’t unceremoniously cheered off the pitch like his unlucky teammate, but his display certainly didn’t earn him many supporters. Luckurst considered him one of the culprits on Fulham’s opener, as he was second to the first ball.
“Got booked – his 11th yellow card of the season – and was off the pace to challenge Muniz for the flick-on that Bassey scored from. 4,” this is how the Man Utd insider described the outing of the 23-year-old midfielder.
On the other hand, the journalist gave Matthijs de Ligt the highest grade (8/10), considering it the Dutch defender’s best outing since joining the club in the summer, something Alan Shearer would agree with.
I wonder if sometimes I’m watching the same game as “pundits ” after their comments after games! Today was not vintage MU by any stretch but at the same time it was a cagey game I thought we could have won. The passing game was not working effectively but until the penalty kicks I thought overall each player was 5/10. Neither good or bad. Pundits nick and cherry pick situations to their own liking.
Samuel Luckhurst is the is the worst of them and he supposed to be Unites friend
I hardly ever agree with pundits these days — I also disagree with some stats as they seem to miss important context — and this is no exception.
Fotmob (who do player ratings) scored Hojlund above Zirkzee, whereas my ‘eyeball’ analysis showed Zirkzee worked hard for 120 minutes and was a signifcant contributor in our build-up, whereas Hojlund was mostly inconsequential. Did anyone who watched the game think Hojlund out-performed Zirkzee? Fotmob also scored Dalot at 8.1, but I would have scored him in the mid-7s at best; of 8 Dalot crosses (his main job) only 1 was accurate (the assist for Bruno’s goal).
When Ugarte was subbed, I didn’t see it as being due to poor performance; it was simply to get another attacker on to remedy the goal deficit.
This wasn’t one of our best performances, even by recent standards, but having been forced to penalties I was shocked to see what followed. Why were Lindelof and Zirkzee asked to take a penalty? Lindelof hasn’t played for ages and Zirkzee is only just beginning to’turn the corner’. Why not Garnacho ? Also, as it got closer to a shoot out, surely Bayinder would have been more useful than Onana, who never seems likely to save a penalty.
Don’t listen to ‘pundits’ or watch them. Turn on at kick off, turn off at the final whistle. Not interested in being told what I’ve already seen with my own eyes. It’s just a gravy train for ex players who are to scared to coach or manage. I’m quite capable of making my own assessments.