Time to bring the Young and Shaw era to an end – Man Utd need better full-backs

THERE have been many moments over the past six seasons that have served as depictions of just how far Manchester United have fallen in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson age, but none as stark as the sight of Luke Shaw holding the Sir Matt Busby Award, given to the club’s player of the year, earlier this month only for the left back to be left out of Gareth Southgate’s England squad for the Nations League.

“No. I think Ben Chilwell and Danny Rose have been excellent,” Southgate bluntly explained with good reason when asked whether it had been a tough decision to omit Shaw. Indeed, Man Utd’s player of the season does not warrant a place in the England squad right now and in that there is a statement of the troubles faced by the Old Trafford outfit.

Of course, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is under no illusion over the task at hand. The Norwegian has already admitted that major changes have to take place for United to even contemplate returning to the top with a comprehensive overhaul of the squad expected this summer. It’s been mooted that as many as eight senior figures could depart before the start of next season, with five or six signings also expected.

United's longest serving 3 players:

Chris Smalling (July 2010) Phil Jones (June 2011) Ashley Young (June 2011)

It's not hard to see why we struggle. Pep, Klopp, Poch would have them gone in seconds

— Mark Goldbridge (@markgoldbridge) May 20, 2019

Much has been written about Man Utd’s desperate need for a right back, with Antonio Valencia out of contract and Ashley Young no longer deemed an adequate enough stopgap solution. Solskjaer simply cannot afford to stick another plaster over what has become United’s most problematic of problem areas. 

This has led to speculation over potential moves for Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Thomas Meunier among others. Even if Man Utd sign a truly world class right back, though, their full back revamp mustn’t stop there. Shaw might be United’s player of the season, with the trophy only just placed on his mantlepiece, but a replacement is needed at left back too.

United’s attacking stagnation can be attributed in part to their weakness in the full back positions. The most common way of creating space against a low block opposition defence, the kind of teams like Man Utd face on a near weekly basis, is to ask the left and right backs to overlap, giving wingers and attackers like Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford options.

Solskjaer’s demand that Shaw and Young do exactly this was evident in the early stages of his United tenure. This not-so-coincidentally coincided with the club’s best run of attacking form for years, carrying them back into top four contention and into the quarter finals of the Champions League.

Our double winning Players Player of the year and Player of the Year, Luke Shaw, has been left out of England’s nation league final’s squad. Tells you everything about how awful our team were this season.

— The Man Utd Way (@TheManUtdWay) May 16, 2019

Neither Shaw nor Young were fit enough to perform this new instruction over a prolonged period of time. Solskjaer’s philosophy hasn’t changed. Instead, he has a team who are simply not fit enough to impose the style of play he wants for more than a handful of games at a time. Shaw is the epitome of this.

This may seem harsh given that Shaw is fresh from his most consistent season as a Man Utd player. For the first time, he managed to avoid injury for pretty much a full campaign and there were a few impressive performances in there. But ask yourself – can you really see Man Utd winning a Premier League title with Shaw at left back? 

Some might reason that United have more pressing priorities than finding a new left back this summer. But finding the right player for that position could have a significant knock-on effect. It could bring the best out of others. By spending big on a new left back, perhaps someone like Ben Chilwell, Man Utd could limit what they have to spend to restore other areas of their team.