[golden_blunder]

hes a big solid lad, I wonder how he'd be at CB

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

hes a big solid lad, I wonder how he'd be at CB

I think you must have got the answer yesterday when he ended up marking a center forward on a corner. He's a very poor leaper even compared to someone like Evra.

 

[Kag]

"Terrible on the ball." What nonsense. Shaw is fantastic. The quicker we revert back to a normal back four the quicker we will reap the benefits of his clearly obvious talents.

More than anything I just like the fact that he can defend. I expect our defenders to defend well, believe it or not, and the guy does that better than any other player on our books.

 

[golden_blunder]

I think you must have got the answer yesterday when he ended up marking a center forward on a corner. He's a very poor leaper even compared to someone like Evra.

when Evra first joined United he was awful in the air, he was constantly targeted by other teams. However, he somehow learnt. Shaw can too. Maybe he can get his hair to harden a bit more with extra gel and use it to grow his head a few inches?

Its how Felliani gets by, he's actually only 4ft 2 but his hair is 7ft 9

 

[acnumber9]

He really is fairly useless as a wingback. He has nowhere near enough going forward to play that position.

 

[Ekeke]

He's just too content for his dribble into the middle to end with a pass backwards or his cross to end in a corner

 

[VanGaalEra]

Needs to work on his right foot, cut inside a lot but ends up passing back because he's not confident with his right foot.

 

[luckyspurs]

Doesn't look three times the price of Ben Davies. His concentration levels in possession are quite poor.

Seems to lack Bale's attitude for greatness yet; required to make sure he doesn't repeat Nick Powell's mistakes, with so much that can go wrong for a player that age if they get sloppy.

Passing really poor and lacking focus this half. Crossing straight into the full back time and again. Miscontrolling the ball way too often. Has to be as diligent with the ball as without.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

He is simply not a wingback.

 

[The Man Himself]

He keeps making inward runs, then runs into crowd and can't bring his right foot into play so just back passes or side passes to someone. Will be better if sticks wide more until he develops his right foot.

 

[Bojan11]

Shaw simply doesn't look three times the price as Ben Davies. His concentration levels are atrocious.

The guy hasn't got the attitude of a Bale, he's coming across like Nick Powell at the moment.

Passing has been awful. Crosses straight at the full back time and again. Miscontrols the ball way too often.

What is this nonsense? Hasn't got the attitude of Bale? Remember Bale at 19?

Get a grip.

 

[sizzling sausages]

He is simply not a wingback.

Yep, simple as that for me.

 

[Santos J]

He's been alright, just needs to stay wide rather than cut in every time he goes forward.

 

[...aka Las Cortinas]

Shaw simply doesn't look three times the price as Ben Davies. His concentration levels are atrocious.

The guy hasn't got the attitude of a Bale, he's coming across like Nick Powell at the moment.

Passing has been awful. Crosses straight at the full back time and again. Miscontrols the ball way too often.

Absolute bollocks.

He's just back from injury and it's showing. He's already a good player though and is going to be class, so I see why you'd be bitter about it.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

He was crap today. We've seen he's a better player than this though. When he's not playing this woeful fecking formation, for starters.

 

[charleysurf]

Shaw simply doesn't look three times the price as Ben Davies. His concentration levels are atrocious.

The guy hasn't got the attitude of a Bale, he's coming across like Nick Powell at the moment.

Passing has been awful. Crosses straight at the full back time and again. Miscontrols the ball way too often.

Jesus, you won't last long on here with that kind of WUMing. A couple of Spurs wins and you think you can come on here and talk crap.

 

[DevilRed]

He is going to be fine. Just needs a few matches under his belt and to get a full understanding of this 3-5-2 bullshit.

Play him as a proper left back and watch him thrive. He has bags of pace which we need to utilize more. However, in this wingback nonsense its clear he doesn't know whether to commit to getting forwards as there is nobody in front of him to overlap.

 

[ricky-romeo]

He is simply not a wingback.

very true.

 

[VanGaalEra]

So him and Rafa have gone off.

 

[charleysurf]

He was crap today. We've seen he's a better player than this though. When he's not playing this woeful fecking formation, for starters.

But him and Rafael need to play well for this formation to work.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

But him and Rafael need to play well for this formation to work.

They need to play well for any formation to work.

 

[Rossa]

I like him; he's fast, strong, doesn't shy away from a tackle and is very solid in defense. Needs to work on his attacking though.

 

[charleysurf]

They need to play well for any formation to work.

true, but 352 makes even more demands on them than 442/433 does. However they are demands they both should be capable of meeting.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

But him and Rafael need to play well for this formation to work.

It is a formation that does not really suit their strengths as players.

 

[charleysurf]

It is a formation that does not really suit their strengths as players.

Shaw and Rafael are both capable of being attacking threats.

 

[Keeps It tidy]

Shaw and Rafael are both capable of being attacking threats.

As Fulbacks not as Wingbacks.

 

[Red Shorts]

Shaw simply doesn't look three times the price as Ben Davies. His concentration levels are atrocious.

The guy hasn't got the attitude of a Bale, he's coming across like Nick Powell at the moment.

Passing has been awful. Crosses straight at the full back time and again. Miscontrols the ball way too often.

The same Ben Davies that couldn't even get a game in the first half of the season? Give me a break.

 

[khoazany]

Am I the only one find it weird that Blackett was preferred over him when we switch to a back four?

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Injured again apparently. Worrying to be honest.

 

[Cooksen]

Injured again apparently. Worrying to be honest.

Oh god we have cursed him.

 

[Mystry]

Jesus what the hell is wrong with our players.

 

[Señor]

He's caught the disease.

 

[dwd]

Jesus what the hell is wrong with our players.

They're injured.

 

[Hed Zitin]

Soft as shit.

 

[KiD MoYeS]

Perhaps it was the head injury he sustained in the first half, he does appear to be soft as shite though, like sick note da Silva.

 

[Mystry]

They're injured.

They're cursed. We should start buying up all the horse placenta we can get our hands on and start sacrificing goats to every god going.

 

[bosnian_red]

Think it was just the head collision he had earlier, seemed a bit dazed all half. Hopefully not a muscle injury or anything like that.

 

[Skills]

Played 35 league games last season. It's definitely something going wrong from our end in terms of training/whatever. Can't be a coincidence.

 

[Damien]

Perhaps it was the head injury he sustained in the first half, he does appear to be soft as shite though, like sick note da Silva.

Shaw's injury record was fine last season

 

[luckyspurs]

Jesus, you won't last long on here with that kind of WUMing. A couple of Spurs wins and you think you can come on here and talk crap.

Please read a couple of my posts and you'll see I'm really not here to wind people up. This just happens to be one of the most reasonable, active and intelligence forums I've read (did so for a year or two before deciding to join). I've written very considered stuff in every post and most of what I've written has been on general football topics. Don't judge a poster off about 0.0001 of the time I've put into watching Luke Shaw's game, with a dad who supports Southampton and watching well over 20 of his matches.

The Nick Powell comparison is too harsh and early I'll admit (looked bad reading back) so apologies if that got anyone's back up, but I don't think it can be underestimated how driven Gareth Bale was and how much you need to be to get to Alaba level. I hate the assumption that a talented 19 year is "position sorted for the next 10 to 15 years" before they've proven any consistency or sustained ability to improve. If sustained success and professionalism was that easy, we wouldn't praise players so effusively when they achieve it.

Shaw only makes it on matching Bale's diligence, fitness and focus levels and Bale had less hype, early money, didn't drink, had a solid relationship and is generally quite boring (professional) as far as footballers go. Davies is another who's extremely hard working and down to earth; very focused and regimented, with the ball and without and a really talented player in his own right. Would personally prefer a less talented (though there's not much in it) but super focused and undistracted player than a guy being offered the world at his feet and playing sloppy passes and weak crosses.

Today he had loads of passes that were metres short or wide of their intended targets. Not taking his time, playing balls without thinking and taking silly chances with what should have been basic routine ball retention. In some ways it highlighted a player thinking bigger than his feet can yet deliver, which is a good sign of potential growth, but there's a fine line between ambition and repeated underdeliverance with the ball.

Also a number of crosses straight at a stationary full back, rather than a dribble or sidestep to improve the angles. Either happy taking corners or just not doing the effective things, though on this you can bring up the fitness issues as he didn't reappear in the second half and there's talk of him being hurt with an ankle problem. It's basic wing play though, which Blackett did in the second half, despite being way less talented.

Been very impressed with his defending, which has genuine quality about it, but he lets himself down when he switches off with the ball at his feet, especially in a possession team. It's like he plays off instinct with the ball and off learned and rehearsed skills and hard work without it. One aspect very good and the other quite weak and done too much on the fly.

Apologies again the Powell comparison because it's unfair to say so, but he is there as the cautionary lesson and it'll still take a lot of hard work for this transfer to work even now. Will stick to game by game performances reaction now, don't worry, essentially the middle section of this rather long-winded reply. Not looking for arguments, quite the opposite, just thought he was one of your weaker and most lax performers today in quite a disappointing performance until Herrera's screamer.