With news that Luke Shaw may have suffered another injury at Villa Park last weekend, there was understandable worry amongst Manchester United supporters. Luckily, Erik ten Hag has confirmed that he was withdrawn as a precaution and will be assessed at Carrington ahead of this weekend’s trip to Kenilworth Road to face Luton Town.
The United and England left back has suffered numerous injuries during his time at Old Trafford, with many niggling muscular injuries affecting his appearances for the club in recent times. Without him, United do not look as solid defensively and also lose a key attacking outlet on the left side of pitch.
His composure and experience on the left side of the defence with Lisandro Martinez has been key to most of the good performances the team have produced since Erik ten Hag arrived in the summer of 2022. With both players seemingly unlucky and being frustrated with injuries, the backline and the team in general certainly suffers in their absence and the importance of Shaw to United is always felt even more in his absence.
On Sunday, he was replaced by Victor Lindelof who is a competent central defender but by no means a left back. With Tyrell Malacia out long term, there is no obvious replacement for Shaw when he is unavailable. The Dutchman has struggled to convince that he is quite up to standard, although he is still young. At times Diogo Dalot has filled in on the left-hand side, but again doesn’t look comfortable there especially defensively.
In terms of other options, Sofyan Amrabat has filled in at left back briefly on couple of occasions and the young Alvaro Fernandez has been loaned out to both Granada and Benfica this season. Whether he will make the grade at Old Trafford remains up in the air and another youth product and local lad, Brandon Williams, has been on loan at Ipswich Town this season. It is also probably the reason why 16-year-old Harry Amass, signed from Watford’s Academy, has been training with the first team in recent weeks.
At 28 years of age, Shaw is now approaching the peak of his career and both he and the club will want him to steer clear of injury as much as possible. His impact on Marcus Rashford down the left side is also a key factor in how we play. Without Shaw’s overlapping runs, allowing Rashford to cut inside and shoot or create, could be a factor in some of the Mancunian’s below par performances this season, although there could well be other issues and circumstances.
As an attacking outlet, Shaw has shown his worth on many occasions. He scored the opener for England in the final of the delayed Euro 2020 at Wembley. Upon joining United, he was also the main attacking outlet of the Louis van Gaal side down the left side. His marauding runs often creating numerous chances. It was also how he picked up the horrendous injury against PSV in September 2015, when flying forward trying to get us on the front foot.
To even come back from that horrendous double leg break in Eindhoven shows how mentally strong Shaw is. Most players either wouldn’t have played professional football again or would’ve had to drop down a level or two. To continue playing for arguably the biggest football club in the world and his country shows how resilient he is and how much he still brings to the team. When he is not available it is felt keenly by all.
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