Luke Shaw has had a rocky career at Manchester United so far. He comes into the team as a very promising 18 year old young talent with already having a staggering 60 apperances for Southampton in both the Championship and the Premier League.
His first season (14-15) he didn‘t have the greatest of times. The team was not performing up to standards, it was Louis Van Gaal‘s first season with the team and he was trying a lot of different styles of football. United ended up finishing 4th which is not great by their standards, but it is better than the season before where they finished 7th under Moyes. Luke Shaw played 21 games, both starting games and coming on as a substitute with subpar performances.
PHOTO: Credits to: byfarthegreatestteam.com. http://www.byfarthegreatestteam.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Luke-Shaw-2.jpg
Luke‘s second season (15-16) started off fantastically with his play improving a lot since the last season. The future was bright for the young fullback, however on 15 September in his 8th game of the season and United‘s first Champions League group stage match of the season against PSV, he suffered a terrible injury. Shaw was tackled by Hector Moreno and suffered a double leg fracture. The game had to be stopped for nine minutes, Shaw was given oxygen and treated by nine medical staff. He was out for 6 months after that horrific injury and didn‘t play another game that season. He returned to training on 4 April 2016 but didn‘t play until 10 months after the injury.
In the 16-17 season Mourinho signed with United. Shaw did not impress José in a few specific games he played, notably in United‘s 3-1 defeat against Watford. José put a lot of blame on Shaw for their second goal. “Our left-back is 25 metres away instead of five,” he said. “But give him 25 metres and you have to press. But no, we wait. It is a tactical but also mental attitude.” (The Guardian). This led to José preferring Young and Blind over Luke and he only ended up playing 19 games that season as he did not impress the manager.
We are now entering Shaw‘s fourth season at United. The season started off horribly for Luke. Mourinho openly criticized him again back in April saying: “I cannot compare the way he trains, the way he commits, the focus, the ambition. I cannot compare. He is a long way behind.“ Mourinho has not put him into the team squad for the majority of the season. Back in December Luke started to impress Mourinho in training. Young also received a three-match ban for elbowing Tadic, this gave Luke a great chance to step up and impress the gaffer. Luke has since been in the squad for the past seven league games and even starting the last four with great performances so far.
PHOTO: Credits to The Sun: https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/nintchdbpict000354703703-e1507616355928.jpg?strip=all&w=722
Luke has had a very unfortunate career so far at United with all the manager changes, injuries and also struggling with his weight, it has made the stay for the young fullback very diffiuclt. However the last month Shaw has continued to impress José and seems to be a starter for the time being. Hopefully he can keep this form up and develop into the player he was destined to be.
Post by: Hákon Þráinsson
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