The manager has again questioned the full-back's commitment, but a failure to coax the best from the player says much about Mourinho
Manchester United’s bench on Saturday against West Brom was something to behold. Only Wayne Rooney was used in the second half as they searched for a crucial goal in the 0-0 draw, with an otherwise defensive look to the substitution options leaving Jose Mourinho with little to offer.
Besides sub keeper Sergio Romero there was utility back Daley Blind, full-backs Matteo Darmian and Timo Fosu-Mensah, and youth-teamers Axel Tuanzebe and Matty Willock. Every other first-team body was either in the starting XI or unavailable.
All except Luke Shaw, that is.
Shaw was among a group of non-starting squad members sent out for an impromptu post-game training session on the Old Trafford turf, and it was hard not to wonder whether this was the last time he would be seen in the arena wearing Manchester United colours given the press conference Mourinho had held just moments before.
In throwing ahead to Tuesday’s Premier League clash with Everton, the manager fired his latest public warning to the 21-year-old.
“It’s difficult for him to be on the bench because I cannot compare him with Ashley Young, with Darmian, with Blind,” Mourinho said. “I cannot compare the way he trains, the way he commits, the focus, the ambition. I cannot compare. He is a long way behind.”
There is simply no good news for Shaw these days. Even when Mourinho proclaimed him as potentially United’s best full-back in March his words carried a sly dig.
“I think the one that should be in a couple of years the best of all, because potentially he should have all the conditions to be the best of all, is Luke Shaw.
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