In its recent search for a defensive midfielder, Liverpool may have found the one that got away thanks to one standout performance in the Champions League.
Prior to the summer transfer season, Liverpool officials reportedly felt that there was a “dearth of pre-peak, elite-level” alternatives on the market after evaluating the pool of available defensive midfielders.
This viewpoint, outlined by David Lynch for This is Anfield, probably explains why the team decided to sign 30-year-old Wataru End for a reasonably inexpensive $21 million (£16 million/€19 million) as an efficient short-term fix in holding midfield.
Declan Rice of West Ham was available, of course, but the Reds had probably already accepted that he would sign with Arsenal (where he did so for $130 million, £105 million, or €122 million), while Moisés Caicedo would be let to leave Brighton for the correct sum. However, his preference was to join Chelsea, as Liverpool infamously learned.
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Liverpool did move for Southampton’s Roméo Lavia but the club would likely have met Southampton’s asking price — it saw three offers rejected — if it truly believed he was an ‘elite-level’ player.
There was, however, one player who ticked both boxes for Liverpool, and he was available for a reasonable $64m (£52m/€60m) — Sporting’s Manuel Ugarte. Aged 22, Ugarte was coming off a fine year in Portugal that had seen him make the Primeira Liga team of the season, but Liverpool allowed him to join PSG without mounting a challenge, and he’s already been impressing in the French capital.
Speaking about Ugarte before his PSG Champions League debut against Borussia Dortmund, manager Luis Enrique said (via French Football Weekly): “All players can progress. He was a huge revelation for many supporters, it’s a huge arrival for PSG. Luis Campos has worked well. He’s a young player who has strength and character, he helps the team, he gives balance. It’s one of the big surprises at the start of the season.”
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Ugarte is a supreme ball-winner, ranking in the top 10 in Ligue 1 for tackles even though he couldn’t start against Nice last time out following a late return from international duty, and he covered plenty of ground against Dortmund. He placed joint-second in the PSG team for ball recoveries (eight), and logged a higher distance (11.9km) than any of Enrique’s players.
But that wasn’t what made this performance so great. Instead, it was Ugarte’s work in possession that stood out. He was almost perfect on the ball, finishing the match with an incredible 96.8 passing accuracy after completing 61 out of 63, including 12 out of 12 long balls. To emphasize just how impressive this was, Thiago, a comparable player at Anfield, has only once maintained a 100 per cent record while completing over 10 long passes during his time with Liverpool (in the first leg of the 2021/22 Champions League final against Villarreal).
Ugarte wasn’t just picking out wide-open teammates with relatively safe distribution though — he led all midfielders in the match for progressive passes (five) and passes into the final third (six).
His vision at the base of the PSG midfield was superb as he spotted and executed passes through the Dortmund lines, with Edin Terzić’s side sitting back and looking to hit the host on the counter. There were a couple of occasions where he whipped the ball around the corner first-time, which spoke to his level of awareness.
Some had already made the point in the summer, but watching a display like this under the Champions League lights, you couldn’t help but feel that Ugarte was the one that got away for Liverpool.
