[Pogue Mahone]

To me it makes little sense talking about the first four years here. He came as an 18 years old prospect expected to come good in time, almost had his carreer ruined by that horrific leg break, and was not up to speed until after the second Mourinho season. As Mourinho said: he had much to learn, and he came good like young players do during that last year under Mourinho. I see that as his breakthrough in the team. Since that, he has had one season lost to injury (this), and five where he has played 30 to 50 games. One year he was poor, like everybody else, the other four he was very good to brilliant at best. That’s an important contribution four out of six seasons, which is normal for a top level player.

That's setting the bar a bit low for a significant contribution to a season. Look at Walker at City. 31 is his lowest ever number of games in a season. Usually 40 to 50. Robertson at Liverpool would be the same. His appearances have always been in the 40s/50s. This season would be perceived as a bit of a disaster for him, in terms of injuries, and he's on track for 30+ games.

 

[FreakyJim]

I've never been keen on Shaw's defending, not even at his peak (which, let's face it, it's a rare occurrence these days). He just doesn't have the pace (or stamina, or desire, or who knows what) to keep up with wingers, so he ends up either fouling them or hanging back and tucking in near the left centre back, leaving the flank wide open.

Mind you, he's rather good at getting forward to support the attack and carrying the ball up the pitch. That's what we really miss when he's sidelined.

And let's be honest, no one's going to convince me that he's giving it his all to stay in shape.

 

[Oranges038]

The way I remember it:

14/15 - injured more often than not
15/16 - that injury at PSV and before that he started the season brilliantly
16/17 - injured most of the season
17/18 - injured or not picked by Mourinho most of the season
18-19 - player of the season
19/20 - really good and available more often than not
20/21 - really good
21/22 - poor
22/23 - really good
23/24 - injured for most of the season

It's his 10th season.

And like I said in my above post, I largely agree with what BorisManUtd posted other than 19/20 (at least I think it was that year) where he did struggle a bit.

Yeah I miscounted.

First 4 seasons were a write off, that leg break really did take a lot out of him. Then you have 6 seasons, where he was really good for 2, decent for 2 and practically unavailable for 2.

As talented as he is, he just cannot handle the physical intensity required to play 40 games a season for a top team. Utd need to get away from these "when he's fit" and "on his day" players who's base level can he incredibly low. The club needs to have standards when it comes to being available and performing consistently week in week out.

 

[Grande]

That's setting the bar a bit low for a significant contribution to a season. Look at Walker at City. 31 is his lowest ever number of games in a season. Usually 40 to 50. Robertson at Liverpool would be the same. His appearances have always been in the 40s/50s. This season would be perceived as a bit of a disaster for him, in terms of injuries, and he's on track for 30+ games.

By important contribution, I didn’t necessarily mean in terms of high game count or everpresentness. That is one way to get consistency in a back four, sure, but I don’t think it’s the only way. If Shaw had had a ‘normal’ season by recent standards, and Malacia had taken one step up instead of one step off a skyscraper or whatever, I think our full back position would have been the one in least need of recruitment. With how it is, it’s up to the medical team to say, but we have other positions I would focus on for the next three seasons if Shaw/Malacia could pick up where they left of.

Part of that is that I think we should at this point trust the squad enough to do more like Real Madrid, focus on one or max two top class and fairly young recruitments instead of an array of hopefuls and loanees. The decline of Varane, Martial, Eriksen, Rashford (?) and Casemiro may do this impossible this forthcoming window, but I think we should move in that direction and be patient.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

By important contribution, I didn’t necessarily mean in terms of high game count or everpresentness. That is one way to get consistency in a back four, sure, but I don’t think it’s the only way. If Shaw had had a ‘normal’ season by recent standards, and Malacia had taken one step up instead of one step off a skyscraper or whatever, I think our full back position would have been the one in least need of recruitment. With how it is, it’s up to the medical team to say, but we have other positions I would focus on for the next three seasons if Shaw/Malacia could pick up where they left of.

Part of that is that I think we should at this point trust the squad enough to do more like Real Madrid, focus on one or max two top class and fairly young recruitments instead of an array of hopefuls and loanees. The decline of Varane, Martial, Eriksen, Rashford (?) and Casemiro may do this impossible this forthcoming window, but I think we should move in that direction and be patient.

I actually think I’m with you on this. We should have room in our squad for Shaw.

 

[criticalanalysis]

He's going to come back ,play himself into a little fitness and form and be ready for England duty in the summer where he will put in great performances. Pisses me off to no end these players who give more for their country than their club who pay their wages.

Probably needs to be sold next summer and a starter level replacement brought in.

He'll have his post tournament break, will come late in summer pre-season for us, play a couple of decent games, will look 'ripped' in photos and then inexplicably start the season slow and off pace. He'll then play himself into form and will look good/great for about 10-15 games then get injured again.

Rinse repeat.

 

[caid]

I dont rate him that highly when hes available to be honest. Always thought he was overrated on here. I'd sell him. His wages are far too high for a back up left back, see no reason to believe he'd be a better centre back than an actual centre back. Just dont rate his mentality at all.

 

[Grande]

I actually think I’m with you on this. We should have room in our squad for Shaw.

Great, now we just have to figure which newbie here is Ashworth in disguise, and tell him

 

[thegregster]

I'm guessing INEOS thinking is as follows.

We are going to built a top class squad for season 2027/28. We aren't going to hang on to any player who we don't think will be a part of that.

So it's hard to see how Shaw will be part of that plan.

 

[Rossa]

Shaw has had some excellent runs of form. Also some very poor ones. And, as far as the person you’re talking to is concerned, those poor runs have been more than enough for him to try and claim Bruno is absolutely useless whenever he’s had a similar dip in form. He also has this weird blind spot about players who are constantly injured, as though that isn’t a problem for the team.

Fully fit and playing at his best Shaw is a terrific player. We haven’t seen that player even nearly enough over the course of his United career as a whole. And the flakiness predated his leg break too, which came at the end of his first really good run of form, following on from a fairly lengthy spell of not being very good at all.

Think I agree with most of this. However, even at his best, Shaw is suspect defensively. He leaves too much space for wingers to whip in a cross.

Then there is the question of fitness. Poor form and or injuries has been a major concern during his time at United.

I’d argue that overall he’s been a disappointment. His top level is very good, best first touch in the squad and great at playing out from the back; but he lacks intensity, often poor at one on one defending, reading of the game defensively and has serious fitness issues.

 

[Rossa]

That’s your opinion. Bruno has been garbage far too often to be close to that for me. Shaws general level of performance is just very good. Injuries have hindered him but he’s been consistently good.

He isn’t. Periods of not playing counts against him. He often comes back out of shape and takes a while before up to speed. He has struggled defensively quite often. His general output in attack isn’t great, but his passing, first touch and playing out from the back are all first class.

His tendency to switch off defensively and lack of intensity while defending have always been concerns.

As you say, it’s my opinion. Bruno has, imo, been a far better and more important player than Shaw. It’s not his best season, still he is creating chances for fun and works his socks off.

 

[Raven]

He's experienced, he's homegrown and he's one of our best players, that's a lot of ticks in the right boxes but he's probably worth a decent fee and his injuries seem to be coming thick and fast. If we are looking to have some kind of fire sale, will he be considered for sale?

 

[lex talionis]

Wages and fitness aside, Shaw is a very good LB and I would definitely keep him if there's any realistic hope that he can remain fit for most of the season in 24/25. My greater concern is Shaw's cover as there isn't much about Malacia to suggest that he's a worthy successor to Shaw.

 

[RedDevil@84]

People hoping on Shaw's fitness are the ones who keep throwing money into buying Lotto tickets for more than a decade, hoping some day they would be millionaires.

 

[criticalanalysis]

Think I agree with most of this. However, even at his best, Shaw is suspect defensively. He leaves too much space for wingers to whip in a cross.

Then there is the question of fitness. Poor form and or injuries has been a major concern during his time at United.

I’d argue that overall he’s been a disappointment. His top level is very good, best first touch in the squad and great at playing out from the back; but he lacks intensity, often poor at one on one defending, reading of the game defensively and has serious fitness issues.

Agree with the rest except the bolded. I always see this bandied around like some fact when Shaw is incredibly inconsistent with this. He's got the technique and has shown enough over time to say he's very capable in this aspect but he's far too often on his heels/giving poor angles for himself and in a lot of the cases, will play it back where it came. When he's on it, he can take a touch, glance past players like they're not there and then open up the entire pitch but this has happened rarely in the past few season i.e maybe once or twice a game. Dalot (this season) and Martinez are far more well rounded in their approach and number of attempts when it comes to their progressive plays out from the back e.g passing angles, beating presses, making feints, drawing players before making the space to pass progressively etc.

If we bring Tuchel in then maybe Shaw may reinvent his career as a third CB because that would bring the best out of him imo and suits his skillset/conditioning right now.