3 underrated midfielders Manchester United can easily sign to upgrade on Manuel Ugarte

Manchester United defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte joined the club with a ton of fanfare ahead of the 2024/25 season after being a star for Sporting CP and even PSG, but he has been so far beneath his 50 million euro price tag that if even Ruben Amorim can’t save him, there may be no point in even trying to get anything out of him.

Ugarte is honestly United’s worst player, which is saying something, considering that despite United’s improvements in the 2025/26 season, they still have several terrible players, especially in midfield.

I like to go beyond the obvious players you hear about in the rumor mills all the time, so here are three midfielders Manchester United could sign next year to replace Ugarte.

Angelo Stiller, Stuttgart

By now, every Manchester United fan has heard the transfer links to Angelo Stiller, who is one of the best anchoring midfielders in the German league, which is actually a great league for producing defensive midfielders because there are so many attacks you have to be aware of to break up, especially in transition.

Stiller is like the new Joshua Kimmich – and not just because he’s from Stuttgart. The guy is so good that Xabi Alonso and Hansi Flick have been scouting him out for Real Madrid and Barcelona, so it makes perfect sense for Manchester United to be involved.

He’s already put up a few years of good film in the Bundesliga, and he has three assists and nearly two key passes per game this season. Stiller isn’t doing as much defensively, but he’s already proven he can read the game well and would be a huge, huge upgrade in terms of playmaking over the quite useless Ugarte.

Nicolas Seiwald, RB Leipzig

Now if Manchester United want to look to the Bundesliga for a more defensive presence in the midfield to replace Ugarte, Nicolas Seiwald is perhaps the most underrated pure defensive midfielder in the whole world in terms of reading the game and breaking up play.

The numbers don’t lie. Seiwald has been sneakily one of Leipzig’s best players this season despite the fact that almost nobody has heard of the Austrian international, as he is averaging 2.4 tackles and 2.8 interceptions per game, which is just beyond insane production for a DM, especially in the Bundesliga.

I worry that Seiwald doesn’t do enough playmaking or ball progression to work on a team like Manchester United that likes to dominate and play on the front foot, but, look, RB Leipzig play the same way and there is no issue.

And sometimes having someone like a Seiwald is worth it, because it enables the attacking players to have more freedom, because you are basically getting the production of two defensive players. Plus, it’s not like Seiwald is an inaccurate passer or a ball security problem either.

Medon Berisha, Lecce

This guy is the real unsung hero and hidden gem of world football. Medon Berisha is so snubbed and underrated that even the imbeciles running the Albanian national team don’t give him starts despite the fact that he is, by far, the country’s best player, a weekly Man of the Match candidate for Lecce, a club captain at the age of 22, and one of the best all-around midfielders in Serie A at this very moment in time.

Seriously, you have to look at these numbers. Berisha has 1.9 tackles to just 0.2 dribbles completed allowed in midfield, which is like the elite of the elite. He has three goal contributions on top of those defensive numbers. And he’s a great playmaker on a terrible team with 1.6 key passes per game.

Some Manchester United fans may have PTSD from the Patrick Dorgu signing from Lecce, but Dorgu was a myth who was never good in Serie A and simply propped up by the cartel of fake agents and transfer insiders in Italian football.

Berisha is actually good, and you know he is actually good because he doesn’t need those same losers to hype him up with false rumors. Nobody knows who is right now, but I am sure the scouts at AC Milan, for example, know him well and will snap him up a the end of the season if Manchester United don’t. Watch him.