Manchester United's €60 million new signing Ugarte is set to make his Premier League debut at Southampton on Saturday, and although he only flew back to Manchester from South America on Thursday, Ten Hag thinks he can play. The 23-year-old Uruguay iron waist played almost the full game in both international matches, with only 11 minutes of rest.
Ugarte was the only United player to return from international competition two days before the game, as his Uruguay side only visited Venezuela on Tuesday night for the World Qualifiers, and it was very far away. The rest of the United internationals have returned to Carrington for training on Wednesday.
However, Ten Hag felt that the two World Preliminary games had boosted his form, so the Reds plan to include him despite returning to the Reds for a maximum of two training sessions. Ten Hag explained at his pre-match press conference on Thursday: "You saw Manuel [Ugarte] playing for Uruguay and he came back this afternoon, only he returned at the latest, the others arrived yesterday but he can still play."
However, the jury is still out on whether Ugarte will start or come off the bench, with Ten Hag making a decision based on Friday's training and Casemiro still likely to remain in the main position for the time being. Compared with Ugarte, the two injured main players Hojlund and Luke · Shaw, who previously announced that the British media could return, will not be able to participate in this game. Ten Hag said: "Rasmus [Hojlund] and Luke · Shaw are making good progress but are not ready [to return]."
Not only these two, but also injured players such as Lenny· Yoro, Mason· Mount, Terrell· Malacia and Victor Lindelof, will not return for this game, and Manchester United's squad is only added to the 0-3 defeat to Liverpool.
Ten Hag did not get involved in the controversy surrounding Cristiano Ronaldo's criticism of him this week, choosing not to talk about it: "It was he who said that Manchester United could not win the Premier League, and if you read it carefully, that's what he meant. He is far away in Saudi Arabia, far away from Manchester. Everyone can have their own opinion, no problem. It doesn't matter to me, I understand where we are in the process and we know where we are in the process."
Cristiano Ronaldo does think it will be very difficult for Manchester United to win the Premier League, with the Portugal superstar explaining: "Manchester United can do well and they can win the Carabao Cup. But I mean, the Premier League, the Champions League and even the Europa League, in my opinion it's difficult. I wish I was wrong, I hope so, but it's hard."
The 54-year-old Netherlands insists we should wait until May to judge success or failure: "We are in a transition period, there are a lot of young players who need to integrate into the team and a lot of players who are injured. But there are no excuses, we still have to win every game, I know that and the team knows it. We will focus on each game and keep the mentality of fighting for the victory. We'll see where we stand next May, it's still early in the season, so what we're going to do is win trophies, try to get as high as possible in the league and do everything we can to win every game."
Reflecting on the previous two defeats in a row, Ten Hag admitted: "Of course, no one is happy when we see the scoreline. But the players have a good feeling about the process and we are in a good position. We have to improve, we have to stand up."
Since Louis van Gaal's tenure in 2015, United have not lost three Premier League games in a row. Promoted Southampton are yet to win a game this season and are joint with the fewest goals scored and the fourth-most goals conceded in the Premier League, making them good opponents to help the Red Devils regain their confidence.