Luke Shaw had the world at his feet when he made his £30m move from Southampton to Manchester United in 2014, but three years on he can barely get a game and his future is uncertain. What’s gone wrong? And is there a way back under Jose Mourinho?
Even the usually deadpan Michael Carrick had a grin on his face. But as the Manchester United squad gleefully celebrated their EFL Cup triumph at Wembley, there was Luke Shaw, shuffling around the pitch with his hands deep in the pockets of a black overcoat.
In United’s biggest game of the season and against his former club Southampton, Shaw had not even been named on the bench. It’s become a familiar story. The 21-year-old’s only appearance in the last three months came in an FA Cup fourth round win over Championship strugglers Wigan. Since then, he has only made one match day squad out of seven.
It’s a curious situation. Shaw struggled in his first season at United and suffered a broken leg at the start of his second, but in between the poor form and cruel injuries there were signs of progress. Two years after becoming the world’s most expensive teenager, it seemed Shaw might finally become a key player and consistent starter. He was named in United’s line-up in the Community Shield win over Leicester, and a few weeks later he was talking up his relationship with a manager who once tried to sign him for Chelsea.
“We’ve had a little joke about it,” he told The Guardian. “He’s a cool manager. ‘Why didn’t you come?’ he wanted to know. I just felt I had more opportunity of first-team football here. But now I’m with him and I’m really happy he’s here. It hasn’t been the best few years but all of a sudden it feels really good, really positive.”
It’s not difficult to pinpoint the moment things changed. It was mid-September and United were playing Watford at Vicarage Road when, with the scores level at 1-1, Shaw backed off Nordin Ambrabat in the build-up to the hosts’ second goal. Mourinho might have taken issue with his team’s failure to track Juan Zuniga, but Shaw bore the brunt of the criticism.
“The second goal was a mistake that goes against our plan and training because our intention was for their wing-backs to be pressed,” said Mourinho. Shaw had been “25 metres away” from Amrabat, according to the United manager. “It is a tactical but also a mental attitude,” he added.
“I’d only play him half an hour at a time in the Premier League,” Adkins told Sky Sports in May 2015. “I was maybe getting some questions asked of me but we knew Luke couldn’t play a full 90 minutes. He was still 17 and very young. He even struggled to play a full 90 minutes in the Under-18 team.”
