He’s clearly very exposed on the left. Both Pogba and Martial regularly get caught upfield. Two of them on the same flank is a fullback’s nightmare. Of course, pointing this out will provoke the ire of their redcafe fan clubs, so good luck with that.
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Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 40
- Clean sheets
- 10
- Goals
- 1
- Assists
- 7
- Yellow cards
- 13
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Considering he was left out there alone with no help he did incredibly well I thought!
I think he can do much better. Still think he plays within himself especially attacking wise.
Haha.. that's why I added the bit of Pogbas having a more advanced role..
Thought he was very good defensively. He made 8 clearances which is more than double anyone else in the team. Considering we were having a tough time with set pieces and balls into the box that helped out Lindelof and Jones immensely. Another 2 tackles and 1 interception on top of that and he played some very good passes in behind the defense to try and get us on the attack. This is the type of player Shaw is. He would prefer to play someone in with a good pass than overlap with a lung busting run down the left. We dont always utilize it because Martial tends to just want the ball to feet but we did against Spurs when we had a clear idea of how we were going to attack them with balls in behind the defense for Rashford in particular.
Probably in our best 5 or 6 players against Spurs
Probably in our best 5 or 6 players against Spurs
Defensively he does really well. I thought he had a good game on that, and hardly ever gets beaten on the outside or in one on one situations (or even by the 1-2)/
He was standing there watching Trippier put in crosses, he didn't do well defensively yesterday.
You dont often get a full back going across to shut down an opponents full back.
That's fair enough mate..
He's not supposed to be guarding the opposing full back most of the time. Martial was watching Trippier put in crosses.
Even when they didn't have any wingers.... he was facing Trippier plenty of time and didn't bother to close him and block the cross
Baffles me what people are watching sometimes. Shaw was so slow in closing him down which made for an uncomfortable evening for our CBs, he would just stand there not even making an attempt to cut the angles.
Martial first half wasn't tracking the fullback as per the tactic to leave him and Rashford in the striker positions for the counter
Fair enough. I was mostly nerves watching that game so ill probably watch highlights again to view it.
He cleared the most crosses out of all our players. You'd rather he tried to run out and close down Trippier who would have got the cross in anyway and we wouldnt have had our player who made 8 clearances there to deal with it? Strange
A Manchester United fullback will get exposed in one v ones because we're a team that takes risks. If he can't handle that, then someone will be bought to handle situations like that. This isn't a defensive team under Mourinho anymore..
Pretty much
What a weird post. We've had Valencia and Young failing to do this for years
Disagree and they were in the first half their most dangerous weapon. I think Trippier put in 2 or 3 which were not cleared and just missed their attackers.
They are both not very good fullbacks...
What has Luke Shaw got to do with Valencia and Young? We're playing under a manager that takes risks now. We haven't had this approach since SAF retired.
Was solid, had not enough help from midfielders and Martial, especially second half.
Hovewer, he more and more looks like CB playing at left back position.
Hovewer, he more and more looks like CB playing at left back position.
Playing Valencia and Young at fullback is a lot of risk.
So which fullbacks stop every cross coming in? I dont know any. Most of the time they challenge and the cross comes in anyway because you can bend it around the challenge. Certainly something Trippier can do
I wonder what would those complaining at his safety first approach have said had we been exposed massively from Trippier's crosses and Spurs' intricate play on his side. Did what he had to do, much like vs Newcastle. We're not ready yet to have two bombing full-backs. Our defence is fragile as it is.
But there's fullbacks that could be bought now who could defend and attack better than Shaw. We don't need to keep shitting on Young and Valencia to absolve Shaw in that regard..
A Manchester United fullback should expect to get exposed by counters due to the nature of the risks we take. You either handle that like Robertson does at Liverpool or make way for someone else.
He needs to keep himself tight and within a short distance to Jones first and foremost. Positionally.
It is not and should not be a FBs responbsibility to close down and block crosses from the opponents FBs.
In todays modern football its suicide to not keep the back four tight.
Spurs wants to lure out the FBs and then quickly switch the play centrally and exploit the space between CB and FB; which you just cannot concede in todays game.
I am impressed by how Shaw has handled himself and he might be one of the few players that actually developed under Mourinho.
Just what you are suggesting he should do was one of his major flaws earlier. Much improved.
Seriously where did I say he should, what I said was he was facing Trippier on many occasions and just watched him cross it in, even at times he closed him down and then just stood there and didn't engage.
Stats don't excuse the fact that he didn't do well in those situations. There were times when he was tucked in and it looked tactical (thats fair), and there were other times he went to close and basically did nothing (not good enough)
Shaw handles it very well, it's when he gets doubled up as was happening constantly yesterday that he's gonna have some trouble, as would any FB in the world, including Robertson.
Going forward I do wish he'd overlap more. Hell, even just playing more balls over the top into the channel would be good. He has good touch on those and connected on a few yesterday when he played them.
I would argue that not committing to a tackle in the type of situations where you manage to isolate the opponents FB near the sideline is tactical as well.
And the right choice.
Most teams wants the opponents to cross the ball from the outside, especially when close to the sidelines. Its a much better choice to let them cross than risking getting beaten and letting the opponent closer to goal.
It is what Mourinho has tried to do for his entire career. Protect the spaces and make the oppponents cross from far outside against your own established defense. Its a very low percentage way of attacking and gives you a great chance to recover the ball and even counterattack.
Not defending Mourinho in general, but he was correct in that.
I'm in agreement with you, the only issue I had was, someone saying he had no protection from Martial and Pogba when they were in advanced positions.
We were lucky not to concede from a Trippier cross, its also well know Spurs score an awful lot of goals from them
I think that was a tactical choice by the manager. rashford and martial stayed high and wide waiting for a release ball so Shaw had to deal with alot coming down that flank and did wel i think
I'd say he had very little from Martial, but Pogba put in a shift. The thing is OGS took a calculated risk so our FBs, in particular Shaw, were always going to be exposed. Herrera stays deeper on the right and Davies, quite frankle, isn't as good as Trippier so Young was offered more protection. Pogba has license to get forward and with Martial instructed to stay high OGS bet that the space Spurs were afforded on that side would be outweighed by the space left in behind for Martial and Rashford to exploit on the counter.
He gambled and he won, and part of that is because Shaw did just about as well as could be expected in dealing with constant Spurs pressure down his side.
Indeed we were, so its a good thing Shaw made 8 clearances from all of those crosses. Jones and Lindelof had 3 each, so between them they didnt deal with as many as Shaw did alone. Neither did Toby and Verthongen for that matter, they had 7 between them.
And yet Lindelof has lots of praise but apparently Shaw didnt defend well? Go figure
The only issue I had was someone saying Pogba was defensively non existent in helping Shaw, when that is quite simply bollox. But I do agree with most of what you're saying..
Nail on the head, great post, this is how I saw it as well.
What has been apparent this season is that he’s a superb footballer, one of England’s most technically accomplished players and he’s got elite talent.
He’d be a huge upgrade on Jones on the left side of the central defence, offering all of the pace and physicality but with a brain, composure, a sweet left foot and infinitely better distribution out from the back. His leap makes up for his lack of height as well - he’s got everything needed to establish himself in the position for club and country for the next decade, given the opportunity.
Getting hold of someone like Bertrand short-term, with a view to eventually replacing them with Tierney would facilitate it immediately.
He’d be a huge upgrade on Jones on the left side of the central defence, offering all of the pace and physicality but with a brain, composure, a sweet left foot and infinitely better distribution out from the back. His leap makes up for his lack of height as well - he’s got everything needed to establish himself in the position for club and country for the next decade, given the opportunity.
Getting hold of someone like Bertrand short-term, with a view to eventually replacing them with Tierney would facilitate it immediately.
He is way too short to play at CB.
He’s like 6ft 1 and has an incredible spring on him. He’s probably the 2nd best header of a ball after Smalling in defence. (I know that’s not saying much) and finally Canavaro was 176cm, 5ft 9. Although why we’d even want to put him as a CB who knows unless it was in a 3.
Edit: upon checking Jones is 6ft so Shaw is supposedly taller.
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