Luke Shaw criticizes Manchester United’s current performance as unacceptable and calls for the rectification of errors.
- The Manchester United left-back was critical of his side’s recent form
- Luke Shaw insisted United must use Liverpool draw to build consistency
After inconsistencies this season, Luke Shaw has boldly described Manchester United’s defensive woes as “not acceptable” and emphasised that errors “must be addressed.”
The England and Manchester United full-back played the entire goalless draw at Anfield on Sunday, helping his team become the first to take points away from Liverpool’s home this season.
However, this has merely slowed the club’s terrible season, which has been beset by injury and inconsistency, with United exiting the Champions League at the group stage last week.
Following an injury layoff, Shaw returned for selection against Everton at the end of November and was swiftly forced back into the starting lineup by Erik ten Hag.
Since then, the 13-time Premier League winners have gained seven points from five games, and Shaw believes United must use their earned draw at Anfield as a foundation to build on as we approach Christmas.
That has to be the starting point now. Every game, whether it’s at Anfield or away, or here (at Old Trafford), it has to be the same, and I think that’s where we’ve been lacking,’ Shaw told Betfred.
‘I think we were brilliant in one game, for example, against Chelsea here – we played a really strong game – and then we let ourselves down by losing 3-0 to Bournemouth here.
Luke Shaw criticizes Manchester United’s current performance as unacceptable and calls for the rectification of errors.
‘It’s not acceptable; we can’t accept it, and it needs to be addressed and corrected immediately because we can’t keep doing this,’ he continued.
Shaw is now one of United’s most senior players, having joined from Southampton in 2014 during Louis van Gaal’s tenure as manager.
Since then, he has been part in disappointing campaigns under Van Gaal, Jose Mourinho, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, with Ten Hag being the most recent manager to come under scrutiny.
However, a clean sheet at Liverpool was a far better performance than recent results would imply, and Shaw believes it demonstrates great improvement.
‘Really vital [to get a clean sheet], especially with the previous performances we’ve had surrendering a lot of goals,’ Shaw remarked.
Going there, especially away from Anfield, reminded us all of what occurred last year there. It was one of the most difficult days of my football career. And for the rest of us.
‘I think it was definitely a step in the right direction, obviously there are still little things we can improve on when we have the ball, but I think as a defensive block, as a defensive unit, I think that is the foundations we need to approach every game with, exactly how we defended in that game,’ he added.
