Can Manuel Ugarte start against Liverpool this Sunday?

Prior to Manchester United's Premier League matchup with Liverpool coming up this weekend, Erik ten Hag is set to decide on his starting lineup. The main question is whether the former Ajax manager will include new signing Manuel Ugarte into the matchday squad.

The Premier League club has scheduled Ugarte, 23, to go to England on Tuesday evening for a medical examination. This comes after Manchester United agreed to pay £42 million up front for the midfield player to Paris Saint-Germain, with an extra £8 million possible in add-ons.

After the move is complete, Ugarte is anticipated to play alongside the incredibly gifted Kobbie Mainoo in Erik ten Hag's midfield. It is not a given, though, that Ugarte is going to be able to go right into the starting lineup for the match against Liverpool the following weekend, regardless of whether he has an entire week of training.

Depending on how each signing performed in the preseason before joining the team, Erik Ten Hag dealt with them quite differently. For instance, Noussair Mazraoui was considered trustworthy to start the first two games of the campaign because he was with Bayern Munich for a longer period of time during the preseason.

Due to their participation in the Netherlands' UEFA Euro 2024 campaign, Matthijs de Ligt as well as Joshua Zirkzee, respectively, missed most of the preseason with their respective clubs. Both of them have started the season as replacements, making appearances in league games off the bench.

Manuel Ugarte set to be on the bench against Liverpool

Erik Ten Hag is unlikely to start Ugarte against Liverpool on Sunday, given that he hasn't played just one minute of football before Uruguay's Copa America 2024 defeat and wasn't even included in PSG's training group.

Kobbie Mainoo and Casemiro will most likely stick together, while Ugarte might make an appearance in the middle of the second half. When the Premier League resumes play following the international break, it is more likely that he will start the following match against Southampton. Before he continues to acclimatise to his environment at Carrington, he will obtain crucial game time with his nation.