Wut? I don't recall him getting beat 1 on 1 once.
Brandon Williams is better than Luke Shaw
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
Was great against Traore today, hardly let him get a cross in and offered something going forward. Hoping he can kick on from here and replace shaw full time.
It was frustrating when Rashford didn't pass him when he made that run and then Rashford made the same run and the play didn't materialize.
I like him. He has confidence in his ability which is very important. Just look Chong, just doesn't look the same player in first team.
I like him. He has confidence in his ability which is very important. Just look Chong, just doesn't look the same player in first team.
He's better for this team at this point. There's times when a teenage Brandon Williams literally sets the tempo for us. Shaw is a massive disappointment, I was a massive fan in his second season before the injury but enough is enough, he's only going to be decent sadly. He's just so passive where Williams grabs the bull by the horns.
Shaw's mum here already?
Oh yes he is.
Oh yes he is.
We concede 99 percent of the time anyway so why not give him a run of games
Very good defensively. Not great going forward but probably would have had won a penalty if Michael Oliver wasn’t asleep.
Romero is better than De Gea
I don’t think he played that bad defensively. He always seemed to be in position, which is more than Shaw can manage. Traore put in one or two half decent balls at most?
well played.To be fair he looks less likely to make a mistake, I'd be tempted to start him as first choice for a while.
This./
With our £200mil defence we’re conceding terrible goals on a weekly basis - Williams [& Axel] should be seeing A LOT of game time between now & the summer but they won’t.
I think even Luke Shaw knows what the future holds
Shaw doesn't deserve to start for United until he gets fit. Luke isn't trying to beat his man up the line, maybe it's confidence maybe it's something more. Williams has energy, hunger and is giving everything. You simply can't see that with Shaw, seems like he's going through the motions for ages. Joking aside his weight his disgraceful for a professional footballer.
I actually don't understand how people say he is worse than Luke Shaw defensively, have any of you actually watched Luke Shaw defend? He's an utter joke. Play Brandon, Shaw needs to be get rid of ASAP.
He played well today. I would start Shaw or Young vs City but then have Williams back in for the Norwich game
Surprised by his mature performance. He's definitely fresh and has energy in his legs so at the very least we should be using him for rotation or even to bring some width at the end of games.
Had help from Matic and James when dealing with Traore but he held his own-ish in a stale mate game.
Had help from Matic and James when dealing with Traore but he held his own-ish in a stale mate game.
Can be arsed to run. That’s an improvement
Defo needs to start now, offers so much more going forward than Shaw and is pretty sound defensively, which will only improve the more he plays.
Alternative thinking at its highest.
Last two games highlight this quite clearly. + Shaw is regressing, Williams is progressing.
Regardless of whether Williams is better than Shaw yet, one thing I really like about Williams is his attitude. He seems like a proper Utd player already. Never look tired and always having a big fire in him. No wonder they made him captain of the under 18. He seems to have the right character imo.
While Shaw often looks like out of gas just after a few sprints. He's so fat for a professional footballer.
I've always defended Shaw but atm I'd prefer Williams in the 1st XI. If they are equivalent or even Williams is not as good as Shaw yet the gap must be small. The current Shaw seems to be the best Shaw we could get while the current Williams surely is not yet. Why waste the minutes on Shaw ?
While Shaw often looks like out of gas just after a few sprints. He's so fat for a professional footballer.
I've always defended Shaw but atm I'd prefer Williams in the 1st XI. If they are equivalent or even Williams is not as good as Shaw yet the gap must be small. The current Shaw seems to be the best Shaw we could get while the current Williams surely is not yet. Why waste the minutes on Shaw ?
This kid has got something and usually I would say he should be phased in,but being honest I really think he should take Shaw's place on a permanent basis. I really wonder what else it could take to convince Ole of that
Last edited:
Good kick up the back side for Shaw. I think Shaw still edges it defensively, while Williams is a lot better offensively. Williams got a lot of help from Maguire / Matic in dealing with Traore and even then Traore had a couple of dangerous balls in to the box.
Traore's a beast though, so if he's able to deal with him, your run of the mill premiership winger should be cakewalk. I'm all for starting him more.
Traore's a beast though, so if he's able to deal with him, your run of the mill premiership winger should be cakewalk. I'm all for starting him more.
Why do you say they won't?
Williams is now ahead of Dalot in the pecking order and has played ahead of the club captain on multiple occasions this season.
Tuanzebe has been promoted to number 3 centre back at the club this season ahead of Smalling, Jones, Rojo and Bailly. He's been in every first team squad when he's been fit and even captained the team this season.
Tuanzebe's injury record is the only reason he hasn't played more this season.
Can we also play Matic more while we're at it? Looked really composed and picked the right option more often than not. I think Shaw is better than Williams, but Williams is more willing to take risks because of youthful enthusiasm . I get the feeling that experienced players won't shine in this team because our tactics won't allow them to.
He was sending in crosses at will. Lindelof bailed us out a few times.
Adama had the highest cross completion in the game. Not trying to nit-pick but Brandon did not had a good game against Adama.
Traore was definitely on top. I think it is because people are so desperate for a youth player to succeed that they start seeing things that are not true. Brandon Williams would have been destroyed Traore if it wasn't for the other players helping him.
I would not trust him to be able to defend alone against wingers.
It is just not true that Williams has been good defensively for us. The only times he has been alright are against very weak opposition in the cups. The majority of times against Premier Leagues he has been toyed with. People are jumping the gun here.
People really believe 'playing well against Traore' means not giving him any chance to cross? Talk about unrealistic expectations. There is no defender in the league who can deal with him 1v1. Williams did well by not allowing him to beat and enter the box, so he crossed the ball from unfavorable distance and angles. He was beaten once for pace iirc. He coped well and didn't give him too much space fearing his pace.
Doesn’t exist meritocracy there:
1) williams deserves to play as a regular starter and he doesn’t
2) the same for Romero
3) the same for Greenwood
4) a.gomes and chong deserves more mins as well but they can’t because the decisions are based on dress room politics
1) williams deserves to play as a regular starter and he doesn’t
2) the same for Romero
3) the same for Greenwood
4) a.gomes and chong deserves more mins as well but they can’t because the decisions are based on dress room politics
Most teams prefer to have at least one fullback with attacking capabilities. If said fullback is not that good defensively, then they can live with that.
To be fair, in almost all of Rashfords time in the first team we haven't had a clue on how to set up play to tak advantage of attacking fullbacks. Apart from Williams, we have used Shaw, Young, Rojo, Dalot, Darmian, Borthwick-Jackson and Blind (forgive me if I missed any) at left back since Rashford debuted. Among them maybe only Shaw showed capability to be good going forward and offer width in attack, and that was only for a period long time ago. The rest of them was either too defensively minded or wrong-footed and thereby not naturally suited to going on the outside of inward wingers such as Rashford.
No he didn't. Literally the first one and one challenge he slid in and blocked the cross. He kept him as quiet as he has been all season. A huge feather in his cap against a very strong and quick in form winger.
It's way to high of a position, Matic takes care of Pepe that high. Shaw should be around 7-10 meters deeper. Bad play from Utd and terrible positioning from Shaw again.
Who would you expect to have the highest number of crosses the goalkeeper? He was the only winger on the pitch and their biggest threat all season. No goals, no assists, kept very quiet considering how he has played the last few weeks. Watch some of his other games against experienced PL full backs and be glad we have this kid coming through. He is going to be first a teamer for a long time injuries permitting.
To be fair he has been doing it all season Vs most fullbacks in the league.. Thought Williams did well yesterday and made it hard for him.
That was a fantastic block. Traore showed amazing acceleration and seemed like he was past him but it was pure determination from Williams to block the cross. He did a great job.
He definitely has defensive flaws, mainly positionally and Shaw is a better defender. But he played really well against Traore and should have won a penalty at the other end. Great performance.
So far he's taking his chances, when he plays, I don't think he's had a bad game yet, but hes young plenty to improve, but Shaw is probably ahead , but not by alot.
Luke Shaw isn't even that good positionally.
‘After he’d created the space already, he then gets back and gets 1 block. Like has been said in here he didn’t really keep him quiet as for some reason Wolves just never gave Traore the ball and for a lot of the game Williams was having to watch Docherty more than Traore trying to go past him.
On the odd occasion Traore did get Williams Isolated he binned him almost every time and got a ball across. Let’s face it Traore is basically going to beat anyone down the line and it’s not really a slight at the lad. However it does go to show the blinkers on some for not been able to read the game as it is.
He did play well but due to Wolves ineptitude he never really got the close examination I was hoping for. He was also protected a lot as most of the time James was the first one at Traore and Matic made a point of getting across.