Manchester United were held to a 1-1 draw at Villa Park as Gary Neville criticised Manuel Ugarte’s performance, with Ayden Heaven making crucial blocks to save the team
Gary Neville believes Manuel Ugarte was rescued by teammate Ayden Heaven on two occasions during the early stages of Manchester United‘s Premier League match with Aston Villa. The Red Devils travelled to Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
During the opening exchanges in the West Midlands, Morgan Rogers threatened to break the deadlock on several occasions, before ultimately doing so just before the interval with a strike from distance into the far corner.
Before the breakthrough, the hosts’ most promising opportunities arose from careless possession in the midfield, particularly from Ugarte. He required assistance from his colleagues on multiple occasions, with Heaven producing an impressive early showing, alongside goalkeeper Senne Lammens.
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Neville highlighted this whilst providing commentary. He said on Sky Sports: “Ayden Heaven has just saved his team two goals in the first part of the game.
“The problem with having Manuel Ugarte in a deep-lying position is that he’s not very good on the ball, and there is an example of it. Ayden Heaven just gets that second block in that’s absolutely crucial.”
Thankfully for United, despite going a goal down, Matheus Cunha dragged Ruben Amorim‘s team back onto level pegging just moments after they had fallen behind. Matty Cash lost possession in a precarious area to Patrick Dorgu, and the ball eventually found its way to Cunha, who confidently slotted it into the far corner from close range.
They were not level for long, though. Rogers scored his and Villa’s second just before the hour mark.
In the aftermath of that goal, Ugarte made way for Joshua Zirkzee. That was part of a double substitution that saw Jack Fletcher come on to make his debut, replacing Benjamin Sesko.
Ugarte’s withdrawal also came soon after the midfielder received his first yellow card of the season. He was starting just his fourth match of the season, and first since the 3-1 loss to Brentford in late September.
United desperately needed three points to maintain their pursuit of Chelsea and Liverpool in the battle for top-four qualification. Victory would have drawn them level with their competitors on points after 17 matches.
Villa, however, had been in exceptional form recently and arrived on the back of a nine-match winning streak heading into the weekend’s fixture. Their most recent loss came at Anfield against Liverpool towards the end of November.
However, they had subsequently defeated teams including Arsenal, Bournemouth, and West Ham United. It came as little surprise, then, that Unai Emery‘s outfit sought to establish an early tempo against Amorim’s charges and exploit Ugarte.
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