Luke Shaw likely thought that his manager had finally put his issues with the left back to bed after Manchester United offered Shaw a new contract.
Jose Mourinho has publicly criticised Shaw on several occasions in the past but a bridge seemed to have been built in recent weeks when Shaw began earning more game time.
The English full back started United’s FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton on Saturday night and supporters were thrilled to see it as they’ve not given up on the youngster just yet.
But alarm bells began ringing when Shaw failed to emerge after the half-time break and Ashley Young took his place on the left side of the Red Devils’ back four.
With no sign of an injury to the 22-year-old, Mourinho admitted after the game that he’d removed Shaw from the fray because he wanted an improvement in defence.
“It was a decision of one player for another player in the same position,” Mourinho told BT Sport. “I wanted to defend better, I want my defensive line to be more solid in relation to a few, not many.
“But a few offensive movements they made from the sides and I wanted more personality in the team because many times I felt that Matic was an island of personality of desire and control surrounded by not water but lack of personality, lack of class and lack of desire.”
https://twitter.com/btsportfootball/status/975130868808208384
The day after Mourinho’s extraordinary 12-minute rant, the United manager held nothing back when he attacked his players for a lack of ambition, despite his best efforts on the training ground and the 2-0 victory he’d just witnessed.
He continued: “A team of XI when you don’t have a minimum of six or seven players wanting to play and wanting to have the responsibility of having the ball and the desire to play. Because it’s one thing to play and it’s another thing to be on the pitch when it’s difficult to have a good performance, so no, I’m not happy with the performance at all.
“When I spend two days on faster building up with the ball arriving earlier in between the lines in attacking areas and that depends on qualities and decisions by defenders in possession, but also depends on movement from attacking players.”
Supporters couldn’t help but feel sorry for Shaw, who seems to routinely be made a scapegoat by Mourinho when things don’t go exactly according to plan.
https://twitter.com/txjasr/status/975131987756371970
Above all of his bullshit and deflection fuckery, Mourinho's systematic bullying of Luke Shaw is the worst. Not United class. #MUFC
— Liam Chivers (@LiamChivers) March 17, 2018
https://twitter.com/Milaniniho/status/975112890746392578
https://twitter.com/DepressedUtdFan/status/975130827565789184
https://twitter.com/YourfriendLC/status/975130383024033793
https://twitter.com/Moallim88/status/975130055461437443
https://twitter.com/superboomerator/status/975130013380071426
https://twitter.com/GCP13/status/975131394270748672
Mourinho making Luke Shaw a scapegoat. I fear Shaw could be the nxt in line of Plyrs let go by Jose only to turn into a WC Plyr. Give the Plyr a chance. What did Young do? Seriously. I would rather hve Luke Shaw
— United best in UK (@VRoonaldo) March 17, 2018
