In this article, I will briefly explain the no. 6 role, a variation of the Defensive Midfield role, and use it as a framework to judge how well, or poorly, new Manchester United signing Manuel Ugarte performs in this role.

We begin with an explanation on what the no. 6 role is, this will give us a framework for gauging the performances of a player performing in this role. Next comes a short summary of the profile of Manuel Ugarte, taken from testimony of past managers and other findings from journalists covering his profile. Next comes an analysis of Manuel Ugarte's performances in the no. 6 role using the previously mentioned framework. We then draw conclusions from this analysis and hypothesise the implications of Manuel Ugarte's inclusion into the Manchester United midfield based on performances observed in prior teams.

The no. 6 role (we will also refer to this role as "the six" or simply "six" at times) can be described positionally as "deep lying", and "defensive" in its duties.

Positionally, they typically lie in the base of midfield, or on top of their defensive line in a back four or three. How this player plays in a back three will become relevant later in the article when I explain Ugarte's role in Luis Enrique's PSG.

Their duties usually include making passes within 2-3 touches of possession to minimise loss of possession by attracting pressure from the opposition. They also dictate the speed and flow of play, break up counter attacks as quickly as possible, provide additional cover for defenders, and often marking forwards/attacking midfielders.

There are usually a maximum of two sixes in midfield, depending on the preferences and goals of the manager for a particular game. Their roles slightly defer when their team is in or out of possession.

The six often receives the ball from centre backs and distributes it to their midfielders, usually through a short pass, within three touches on the ball. They may also drop back between defenders to make a back three or four, depending on the number of CBs the manager starts with. The six would also scan the field constantly before receiving the ball to ensure they pass the ball as quickly as possible to a nearby teammate to retain possession or advance the play to transition into an attacking routine.

When the team is pressing high, they may be the midfielder furthest back yet dictate play for the attack and controlling the flow (which channels the ball goes through) and speed of passes to create chances. On this, as well as their role in scanning the field, the six has to be observant of what's going on at any given moment of play, as well as be technical enough to give the right pass when necessary.

The six's prime responsibility out of possession is to break up counter attacks (or "counters"). Indeed, this is the most important, and valuable, role of any defensive midfield role.

They are often the "first line of defence" during counter attacks, being the midfielder furthest back and acting almost like a "stopper" while his CBs are marking zonally. An exceptional six can anticipate loose passes and looks to dominate every duel, sometimes with "full blooded" tackles. In other words, they are usually labelled as the most aggressive midfielder.

They increase the chances of breaking up counters by marking the opposition attackers/attacking midfielders, aggressively. Sometimes their marker is permanent, other times it depends on the phase of play.

Finally, if there is a defender caught out, most likely while marking a player higher up the field during a counter, they are expected to cover their defenders to help prevent a counterattack from converting into a goal scoring chance.

So, to summarise, a six is simply a defensive midfield role where the positioning and duties of the player is expected to be defensive, but their passing duties sets them apart from centre backs. Now that we have defined this framework for a No. 6, we can use this to judge the performances of Manuel Ugarte in this role. However, to get an idea of the profile of the player, we first present various testimony on his playing style, and character, by former coaches and journalists.

Manuel Ugarte is a defensive midfielder from Montevideo, Uruguay. First hailing from Fénix's academy till the age of 15, when he was promoted to the first team by then-manager Rosario Martinez, starting out as a striker.

By the age of 18, he was appointed captain of Fénix by manger Juan Ramón Carrasco as a box-to-box midfielder. He would then participate in Uruguay's prestigious Olympic team and a Copa Sudamericana run with Fénix.

These performances would catch the attention of Portugues top-flight team, Famalicão, in the winter window. He made such a positive impression for half a season that Sporting CP, one of "Os Três Grandes" of Portuguese football, would sign him in the summer window.

"During the first conversations I had with him, I quickly realized how well he understood the game."

"He identified the differences between the context he was used to in his former club and the one he found in Europe. Quickly assimilating tactical content in such different contexts was one of the clear indications that we were dealing with a young player [who is] above average.

This technical-tactical ability to switch from one world to another, this adaptability, is rare."

Joao Pedro Sousa, Famalicao's coach, 2021. Source: L'Équipe, 2023

Initially impressing when he was used to cover for an injured João Palhinha (now at Bayern Munich at the time of publishing), he eventually became integral to Ruben Amorim's side in the 22/23 season (GoalPoint, 2021).

At one point, he had the most defensive actions made in the Champions League (34 by October, second highest was Florentino Luís at 25) (WhoScored, 2022).

After moving to Paris Saint-Germain, the performances in his first month playing for Les Parisiens was so well received that he was described as a "complete midfielder, with a rare situational intelligence" by L'Équipe (2023).

Manuel Ugarte can be described to some as an intelligent, disciplined midfielder assisting his defenders in every stage of the game. To some, however, he may just be considered a boring, unremarkable player with very limited passing range, often "killing" the attack. But how true are either of these statements?

To answer this, video and statistical analysis would need to be conducted. In this post, I use the aforementioned analysis techniques to make an assessment of Manuel Ugarte's performances as a six. A role he plays almost exclusively for club and country.

We begin with the video analysis portion of this post. The following games were analysed for this section:

• PSG v. Strasbourg, Ligue 1 2024

• PSG v. Lens, Ligue 1 2024

• Uruguay v. Bolivia, Copa America 2024

• PSG v. Lille, Ligue 1 2024

Not all clips shown come from these games for the sake of brevity. We will however used the clips to highlight aspects of his game which can be observed in all of the games analysed. In the following sections, we look at Ugarte's movements and actions in and out of possession.

Note: Ugarte can be identified as the player with the no. 4 jersey in the following clips. Sometimes, he will be highlighted on the field in the videos, sometimes not.

My apologies for this inconsistency, multiple issues arose when trying to edit these videos and embed then into this post which required a lot of reediting.

The criteria we will use to assess Ugarte's positioning and behaviour whilst his team is holding possession has already been outlined in the section describing the role of a no. 6.

First, we determine how he is positioned when receiving the ball from his CBs, and how well he copes in this scenario. Whether or not he scans the field before receiving the pass is also crucial to the role, as the six often has little time to release the ball, and will obviously like to maximise the utility of each pass.

Here, Ugarte performs this routine with minimal movement and touches. It is important to note how the forwards for Lens, Sotoca (right forward) and Wahi (left forward), mark Danilo Pereira (LCB) and Marquinhos (RCB), respectively. This movement by the opposition leaves Ugarte free before he receives from Marquinhos, turns and pushes the ball to Lucas Hernandez (LB here, but Luis Enrique typically plays a 3-3-3-1 in games, even if the lineup shows 4-3-3 at time, the latter formation is fluid and sometimes reverts to 3-3-3-1 when in possession).

Here, we see Ugarte again receiving the ball from Marquinhos (RCB) and passes immediately forward to Vitinha (no. 17) with a forward pass. What's notable is the routine is that he first scans, spots Vitinha, alerts his teammates to pass to him, and then receives the ball. By the time he gets the ball he already knows what he'll do.

This, including his scanning and raising of his arms, is a hallmark to his game. You will see it a lot in games, as well as him talking and gesturing to his teammates giving instructions.

Here, Ugarte receives, the ball from Zaire-Emery this time (RB/RCM), he scans and alerts teammates of his availability before receiving it again. This time he has to fend off his marker under intense pressure, and Medina (bleached hair) probing for a mistake. Here, he shows both his strength on the ball and his decision to shield the ball before making a pass rather than dribble. This is again a hallmark of his play which you would see often. The danger of doing this is of course the risk of relying on the discretion of the referee to call for a foul when his back is against the wall.

Here, we see some behaviour which was highlighted previously. I would also like to highlight that this play happened close to the end of the first half, and the fact that the centre forwards (Strasbourg's Habib Diarra and Dion Sahi) are pressing the centre halfs instead of Ugarte. For most of the match thus far v. Strasbourg, the centre forwards marked Ugarte and left the CBs alone.

Here we see Ugarte being marked by the Strasbourg CFs this time and leaving the defence alone. Despite this, besides seemingly moving to get space to receive the ball, he is, quite literally dictating play: telling his teammates to not go forward/slow down, and other instructions which I could not interpret. This is another hallmark of his game, and was witnessed in every game observed for this analysis. In fact, he rarely receives the ball from his CBs when he's being marked by CFs. I would go so far to say that this is planned by the managers Luis Enrique for PSG and Marcelo Bielsa for Uruguay.

I understand that some fans like to see a six regularly receive the ball, dribble their marker, and/or quickly pass to a teammate out wide or to one with more space. There are a lot of implications with this move, which I would not go through. But I would just like to highlight that this is something I've rarely seen Ugarte do in all the matches I've watched for this analysis.

Next, we asses Ugarte's positioning and behaviour out of possession, which includes how he copes during counter attacks. Framework for this was detailed at the beginning of this article.

Here, we observe three key things about Ugarte's play:

• He is the midfielder furthest back at the beginning of this counter routine by Lens

• He immediately marks and tracks David da Costa, the Lens player furthest forward

• He positions himself between Zaire-Emery and Danilo Periera in the box by the time Sottoca gives a cross in the box, which he intercepts, twice

So, in this clip, we see Ugarte covering for CBs on a counter, marking attackers, and intercepting crosses for the counter.

Here we see Ugarte engaging the Lens player advancing infield, unsuccessfully stopping him advancing in a counter. He subsequently drops back into the box during the duration of the counter routine from Lens. He then receives the blocked cross from Lucas Hernandez and gives a short pass to start a PSG counter.

Here, we see Ugarte initially marking the CM on top of PSG's box, and then dropping back further into the box to block a cross. After gaining possession again, he gives a quick pass forward to Mbappe to start a counter. It's important to look at this movement from Ugarte off the ball when comparing with Casemiro, who plays has played a similar role for United for the past three seasons.

His marking of players on the counter, and general tackling abilities, are especially a joy to watch. If you find his play so far particularly boring (understandably so, many sixes are "boring"), I hope you can appreciate this side of his game. He routinely shuts off counters, quickly. This is because that Ugarte is always probing out of possession and always supporting players in possession. The latter scenario allows him to be close to the action that dispossesses his teammates. His tenacious attitude and tackling ability does the rest.

Here, we see Ugarte's movement off the ball during a counter, defaulting to sit in between CBs to cover for one of the 3 CBs for PSG (in Enrique's 3-3-3-1).

https://streamable.com/h3i8mb

(Apologies if the above video is just a link, not sure why it hasn't embedded into this post)

Here, we see Ugarte pressing Strasbourg forward Habib Diarra while the opposition is in possession. Ugarte out of possession is, I would say, 95% of the time marking a single player, and it is usually the AM or a CF. The rest of the time Ugarte is covering for someone else, lapses, or makes the wrong decision to leave his marker for someone else.

Here we see PSG collectively engaging in a high press routine at the end of the first half against Strasbourg. The few times I saw Ugarte press high for club and country, it was during the end of the halfs.

We now make a conclusion based on this analysis in the following section.

We have observed through thorough video analysis of Manuel Ugarte's games for club and country his aptitude in the no. 6 role. The Coach's Voice provides a good framework for assessing the performances of players in this role through video analysis, as was done in this article.

From this, we can see that Ugarte performs these roles quite well, and from watching all the games used for this analysis, does so with a level of discipline that is quite rare in this game. What has stood out to me the most is how much time he spends alongside his CBs compared to midfielders and forwards. This is particularly notable with Uruguay, and you'd often think that he is playing as a CB in a role long forgotten in the modern game, the Libero.

If I had to hypothesis why a coach would play him in midfield, I could conjure up two reasons: 1) to cover for CBs, particularly for counters 2) to force the opposition down the wings. On the latter point, in all games analysed for this study, I noticed the lack of service in the middle for opposition teams.

On one hand, I would have to praise Luis Enrique's 3-3-3-1, which was an absolute joy to observe. To witness every player play in such a rigid formation, yet with so much fluency in terms of positioning (where teammates would often cover for each other) was a joy to behold, and to me reminds me of a more disciplined variation to what is often seen in South American football. But Ugarte also deserves praise for this, because I would go so far as to say that he marks more aggressively than even his teammates at CB. There is rarely a pass forward to a centre attacker when he is on the pitch.

One game where he struggled to do this most from those observed was v. Lille. I would attribute most of this to Angel Gomes, who is honestly a joy to watch as well on and off the ball. Ugarte was marking him, and he was marking Ugarte with almost equal fervour. His control and passing of the ball didn't require more than 3 touches to unsettle Ugarte.

What would worry persons watching him is his probably what I think is his biggest strength: his discipline. Manuel Ugarte isn't a bad passer of the ball, definitely not on the level of Busquets or Pirlo, but there really isn't a limitation to his range of passing (this is a skill refined by technique, but not limited by technique. Harry Maguire, for example, has excellent range of passing but nobody has ever, nor will ever, describe him as "technical"). Not doubt, however, there will be persons complaining about his passing. I will just say that Ugarte is dedicated to being disciplined in his role; he is a player with no frills.

Another issue I see in his game is the volume of tackles made. Personally, I think he is quite disciplined in this field as well; the tackles he makes serves only to reduce pressure on his CBs and quickly regain possession. However, high volume of tackles will always equal a high number of cards, particularly yellows. This is just due to the subjective nature of refereeing. The only way to mitigate the implications of this (suspensions due to accumulation of yellow cards) is to have adequate cover for him when he is not available.

I do believe that the positives outweigh these negatives, however. Considering that United has needed a proper defensive midfielder for more than a decade, I think many United fans would be excited with this new player.

I hope you've enjoyed this report on Manuel Ugarte, if you'd like to contact me based on what you've read you can do so by sending a DM here. Otherwise, I hope to see you for my next report.

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