After several indications in recent months that Luke Shaw might not have a future at Manchester United, Jose Mourinho has handed the 22-year-old something a lifeline.
Shaw earned plenty of plaudits for his performance in United’s 2-1 comeback victory over CSKA Moscow on Tuesday evening, a result which saw them finish top of Group A in the Champions League.
For the first time in almost eight months, Shaw was handed a starting place for the Red Devils and saw out the full 90 minutes.
The left back was thought to have fallen out of Mourinho’s future plans entirely and most fans expected to see him sent packing in January to pave the way for the arrival of Spurs’ Danny Rose, the full back who has been linked with a move to Old Trafford recently.
But it sounds like Mourinho is willing to give Shaw another chance as he has rejected suggestions that his appearance in their final Champions League group game was a once-off which came about due to the possibility that the United manager had one eye on keeping his best players fresh for Sunday’s Manchester derby.
After praising the former Southampton player, Mourinho insisted that Shaw would be handed more opportunities to prove himself off the back of his showing this week.
“Very positive performance,” Mourinho said. “Especially with the ball going forward, really dangerous, creating a lot, great intensity in his game, no surprise in minute 80 he is feeling the consequences of that intensity. It’s normal as it was the first match of the season for him.
“But he was deserving of that opportunity for quite a long time and he’s going to get more because the performance was really positive.”
Shaw’s fitness has come in for plenty of criticism this season and United legend Paul Scholes has interestingly claimed that the youngster’s lifestyle is simply not up to scratch when he’s not playing.
"A couple of years ago, I thought we were signing the best left-back in the world" https://t.co/hPUuCsQiEX
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) December 5, 2017
Scholes claimed that, like Wayne Rooney, Shaw required consistent playing time to make sure his conditioning was at an acceptable level.
“It’s difficult to say as we don’t see what goes on behind the scenes, (but) I don’t think he lives his life as clean as he possibly should do,” Scholes said on BT Sports’ coverage of the Champions League.
“With his body shape, he looks like a player who needs to be playing every week. We had Wayne Rooney, who was a player if he missed a couple of games you knew, he wasn’t looking after himself. He needed to be playing all the time, Saturday, Tuesday, whatever it may be. With Luke Shaw, is he going to get a run of 10 games in the team? I’m not sure, the problem he has got is that Ashley Young has been brilliant at left wing back. I hope there is a future for him. A couple of years ago, I thought we were signing the best left back in the world. But if you can get him playing there’s a chance.”
