Only Luke Shaw will be able to honestly say how hurt he may have been by Jose Mourinho’s very public criticism of him, but from the outside, it certainly looked very painful to watch.
The England international repeatedly found himself in the cross-hairs of the Portuguese man when the latter was in charge of Manchester United.
In 2017, Mourinho dismissed Shaw’s impressive cameo against Everton by insisting that the defender played with “his body with my brain”. Less than a year later, the 57-year-old called him out again, this time for supposedly not being “aggressive” enough for his liking.
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And then whilst on punditry duty for Sky Sports last summer, the former United boss suggested that Harry Maguire would have to realise that he needs to cover for Shaw “a lot of times this season”.
The criticism from Mourinho has been merciless, and unrelenting, and quite frankly, most players may have just packed it all in. But instead, the 24-year-old has dusted himself off, and proceeded to finally show his worth as a United player – his performance against Club Brugge on Thursday night being the latest in a series of impressive displays in recent weeks.
As per Whoscored, each of his last five games across all competitions have seen him register an average match rating much higher than seven. And when looking at the underlying numbers behind his display against Brugge, it is easy to see why.
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The former Southampton starlet won five of his seven total duels, made a team-high three tackles and three interceptions, and provided an attacking outlet too. He had two shots on goal, completed his one attempted dribble, and successfully delivered three of his four attempted long balls too.
Such was his impressive performance, United appeared to be intent on exploiting him to the fullest. His total of 98 touches was only behind Fred in a Red Devils shirt, whilst his two key passes were the same as the Brazilian and Daniel James combined.
Shaw’s latest performance delivered yet another emphatic statement towards proving Mourinho wrong, and ultimately for being able to get the best out of him, it can go down as a remarkable personal triumph for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The Norwegian is getting a tune out of a player who was out for the count under his predecessor, and that will be a feather in his managerial cap for sure.
Meanwhile, this is how Man Utd could line up against Everton.
