Shaw still has a lot to prove to new boss Ten Hag
EIGHT years to the day since signing for United, Luke Shaw drove back into Carrington wondering what the season ahead might hold for him.
The left-back has been a great survivor at Old Trafford but even as he approaches a decade of service at the club there are questions still to be answered.
He is only 26 but is he really United’s long-term answer at leftback? A fourth manager (five, if you include Ralf Rangnick) is about to try and make that judgement.
The England international is unlikely to face any competition from Alex Telles, who has failed to make an impression, but United are still being linked with Feyenoord’s attacking left-back Tyrell Malacia and the 22-year-old could be a good fit for Erik ten Hag’s system.
The new United manager will certainly know what he’s getting in Malacia, who he will have come up against in the Eredivisie, but Shaw has a chance to establish his own credentials having returned to Carrington for pre-season training yesterday morning.
This will be his ninth season at the club, but somehow he remains something of an unknown quantity.
There have been spells in the wilderness, especially under Mourinho, and battles with injury and bad luck.
There have also been moments when he’s looked like a world-class left-back, notably in 2020/21, a season which finished with a string of superb performances for England at the European Championship.
But that remains the only one of Shaw’s eight seasons in which he’s featured in more than 30 Premier League games and, according to the Transfermarkt database, he has now been unavailable for 150 matches in his time at the club due to illness and injury.
Of course, 51 of those came in 2015/16 and that double leg break against PSV Eindhoven that was such a dreadful setback, but the idea that Shaw is injury prone is continuing to linger.
Malacia will mean a challenge for Shaw much more competitive than the one he’s faced in recent seasons
He played just 20 times in the league last season and while he didn’t have a good campaign, he escaped the worst of the criticism in a defence that was a debacle at times.
His return to pre-season training yesterday is a sign he’s recovered from the leg injury that kept him sidelined towards the end of last season and with Ten Hag’s arrival signalling a fresh start, he should be raring to go to try and prove he is the left-back of 2020/21, rather than the player some United fans remain unconvinced by.
The Reds certainly appear to have more pressing priorities in the transfer market this summer, even with the acceptance that Telles isn’t up to the task, but the links with Malacia persist and if United rival Lyon for his signature it will mean a challenge for Shaw much more competitive than the one he’s faced in recent seasons.
On the form he produced in his best and most consistent season for the club, there is little reason to think Shaw would be under pressure for his place.
His displays during that campaign came behind closed doors and he carried the momentum into Euro 2020. He was an attacking left-back and a major threat for United going forward. When he scored inside the first couple of minutes in the European Championship final at Wembley it seemed to cap a breakthrough year.
But like so many at Old Trafford his progress stalled last season, thanks to form and fitness in Shaw’s case. Now he will be one of several players hoping Ten Hag and his coaching staff can get him back on track.