At Estadio Monumental de Maturín, Uruguay and Venezuela played to a goalless draw. Manuel Ugarte, who was recently signed by Manchester United, played very well in the middle of the field.

On the last day to sign players, Ugarte was finally announced as a United player. He came from Ligue 1 winners Paris Saint-Germain, where he had lost favour under Luis Enrique and joined the club.

Even though Ugarte hasn’t played for the Red Devils yet, he’s likely to be involved when they play Southampton on Saturday.

Ugarte played very well in Uruguay’s World Cup qualifier against Venezuela before that game, making a strong case for Ten Hag to start him at St. Mary’s on Saturday.

The 23-year-old played all 90 minutes against Venezuela and during that time, had 57 touches of the ball to his name.

Ugarte attempted 41 total passes and found his teammates 34 times, managing an individual pass completion rate of 83%.

He tried to ping six long balls and successfully connected on three occasions. He fired one shot, which was on-target and demanded that Venezuela goalkeeper Rafael Romo swing into immediate action.

The United No.25 embarked on three dribbles and completed all of them.

Defensively is where Ugarte thrives and he demonstrated this perfectly well against Venezuela as he won seven of the 11 ground duels he delved into.

The former PSG man was required to contest just one duel in the air and he came out on top.

He made one clearance and three times as many interceptions. Ugarte put in an impressive four tackles.

(Stats obtained from Sofascore)

That he played all 90 minutes on this occasion and excelled, suggests that Ugarte is more than ready to be thrust straight into the mix when United meet Southampton.