Shaw is our best full back and best FB in Europe (edited)

I think this idea that he is all of a sudden performing better because of Williams is a load of BS. He was putting performances in like this last year. Its why he got a few player of the months and eventually wound up being player or the year.

Its just more media rubbish and cliches fans have latched on to to regurgitate.

The problem he’s always had is that the team has been rubbish he is easily one of the best footballers in the team and he is for me a better all round defender than Bissaka. Bissaka has one thing that he does better than anyone else in the world but, Luke Shaw, see’s, reads and deals with danger much better and is better in the air as well.

Shaw isn’t bad in one on ones either but instead of going to ground he tends to use his strength and pace which most defenders will tell you is the thing to do instead of taking a risk and going to ground.

His crossing does need to improve but his passing in to the box has been excellent. I do wish at times he’d just whip one in to space and at times be 5-10 yards further forward when Maguire/Fred has the ball but he’s the best fullback at the club and Bissaka is brilliant, and Williams looks alright.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
Meh shaw has been underrated for ages, I’ve said for time that he’s certainly no worse than Chillwell (in fact I think he’s better)
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He won POTY despite Pogba scoring most goals, doing most assist among other stats. He has never been underrated, maybe for a short spell this season. The problem is that people rate him as an LB when he has been playing well as an LCB. He's still not good enough going forward and will probably never be. That's, of course, a big problem.
 
Shaw has played better recently but he was mediocre for a long time too. AWB defensively is the best in the world.
 
People need to realise that being the best one on one defender in the world does not cover all areas of defending.

Bissaka still has a lot to learn in terms of defending because there are aspects of defending he isn’t that great at.

But to say things like “defensively‘ Bissaka is the best in the world is tripe. Because Bissaka has poor positioning and doesn’t really read the game all that well. He’s sensational 1 on 1, best in the world at that hands down but he is not the best “Defensive” FB in the world or in our team.
 
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Mickson said:
He won POTY despite Pogba scoring most goals, doing most assist among other stats. He has never been underrated, maybe for a short spell this season. The problem is that people rate him as an LB when he has been playing well as an LCB. He's still not good enough going forward and will probably never be. That's, of course, a big problem.
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He did and most people don't even know he won it or acknowledge that he had a good season, id say that makes him underrated.
 
TrustInJanuzaj said:
He did and most people don't even know he won it or acknowledge that he had a good season, id say that makes him underrated.
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If he got the most votes by all our players (despite, quite clearly, Pogba was better) I'd say then that he is per definition not underrated.
 
Denis' cuff said:
the lad has got the goods but is way behind in terms of development. As acknowledged, is seriously lacking in end product and has been awol umpteen times while his head takes a holiday whilst dreaming about meat pies. Often clueless who is supposed to be marking but maybe on the mend?
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I think with Shaw it was probably a case of too much to soon, a full England international and a move to the biggest club in the Country by the age of 18 and he just hasn't felt the need to develop his game, the Managers/Coaches can only do so much and they've obviously tried, Mourinho went too far mentally destroying him, but that's Jose for you, but for me his positional sense/game understanding hasn't improved, nor has he developed the side of his game that brought him to everybodies attention so young, his pace and power, since he first came to the club nearly six years ago with the World literally at his feet and that's on Shaw, and it's shocking, I think the lad is taking the piss and has been allowed to with so many of our fans/pundits alike cutting him slack because of an injury from Sept 2015!

Give me Brandon, rash tackles and mistakes over Shaw every single day of the week.
 
Shaw commits too many fouls and picks up too many cautions resulting from poor positioning and lack of pace. Shaw has also abandoned the attacking third for the past few seasons, although he's recently been more adventurous.

I'd say AWB is a much better defender and Williams is a much better attacker. Williams being a lot younger has time to add to his positional awareness and reading of the game. It's a perfect situation though, as Shaw ages and begins to slow down, Williams will be ready to take over duties from Shaw.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Shaw commits too many fouls and picks up too many cautions resulting from poor positioning and lack of pace. Shaw has also abandoned the attacking third for the past few seasons, although he's recently been more adventurous.

I'd say AWB is a much better defender and Williams is a much better attacker. Williams being a lot younger has time to add to his positional awareness and reading of the game. It's a perfect situation though, as Shaw ages and begins to slow down, Williams will be ready to take over duties from Shaw.
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If you genuinely think that Shaw lacks pace, I genuinely don't believe you've seen him play.
 
No uncalled injuries and he'll give the whole league good run for their money, but for now sorry Luke... Bissaka looking already established high shelf PL player and that with being two years younger.
 
Shaw's first touch and short passing has to be top 3 in United squad surely.
 
Class of 63 said:
Yeah, just wondered why you were using it to describe Like Shaw, who isn't gifted or exceptionally talented. Beyond pace and bulk he is very limited with little to no game understanding.
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Nah,I think your being very harsh.Honestly maybe it’s just me but I don’t see anything special in Brandon Williams.At times it feels like he’s a headless chicken,he doesn’t have the composure that the top defenders have.Luke has been terribly unlucky with injuries over the years and that’s obviously stalled his development.

His quick turn of pace,his attacking ability,his quality on the ball could turn him into a great LB if he stays fit.I just hope we get to see him play week in,week out for atleast the next few months...
 
Nikelesh Reddy said:
Nah,I think your being very harsh.Honestly maybe it’s just me but I don’t see anything special in Brandon Williams.At times it feels like he’s a headless chicken,he doesn’t have the composure that the top defenders have.Luke has been terribly unlucky with injuries over the years and that’s obviously stalled his development.

His quick turn of pace,his attacking ability,his quality on the ball could turn him into a great LB if he stays fit.I just hope we get to see him play week in,week out for atleast the next few months...
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Depends what you look for in a full-back, personally prefer an auxiliary winger who has a basic grasp of defensive positioning that a solid reliable defender who offers little or nothing going forward as is the case with Shaw, and how long can we use injuries in defence of Shaw, I know all injuries are different, and some players take longer to get their game back, but if you'd seen the injury Valencia got against Rangers you'd have thought at the time he might never walk properly again nevermind play yet within 7 months he was back better than before, Wes Brown another one, yet folk are still defending Shaw because of an injury from nearly 5 years ago, I just don't get it.
 
I really enjoy his touch and his instincts to find open space. He has at least one great moment a game where he brings the ball down with a purposefully long touch and loses about three defenders in the corner and takes the space. Passing and linkup around the box has always been quite good, but crossing has just never been nearly good enough to force defenders to step out to him when he's putting in a delivery. Probably a lost cause by now and we've talked our fullbacks' attacking capabilities to death here but if his crossing could be more dangerous it would add another dimension to this team. I do like some of the spaces Shaw's been finding from Bruno's passes in behind though, he makes smart runs
 
Raven said:
If you genuinely think that Shaw lacks pace, I genuinely don't believe you've seen him play.
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Shaw is caught on his heels every game. Go back and watch every time he gets a yellow card, it's because he got done for pace and/or didn't have his feet sorted out and had to pull back the attacker or block them off. I'm not talking about 100 yard dash or whatever. In either case, Williams is much faster.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Shaw is caught on his heels every game. Go back and watch every time he gets a yellow card, it's because he got done for pace and/or didn't have his feet sorted out and had to pull back the attacker or block them off. I'm not talking about 100 yard dash or whatever. In either case, Williams is much faster.
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Is that because of pace or placement of him or of someone else?
 
Wasnt the biggest fan of Shaw previously but ultimately having two extremely consistent defensive minded fullbacks feels just as good as having two attacking minded fullbacks if we can make our central attacking play work to a higher level.

And it has.

I say - eff the attacking fullback stuff, let shaw and AWB close down the channels, they are decent attacking wise but are wonderful defensively- let the rest of the team dominate the game centrally.

I think that's just as efficient as utilising wingbacks always only for attacking play.
 
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Class of 63 said:
Depends what you look for in a full-back, personally prefer an auxiliary winger who has a basic grasp of defensive positioning that a solid reliable defender who offers little or nothing going forward as is the case with Shaw, and how long can we use injuries in defence of Shaw, I know all injuries are different, and some players take longer to get their game back, but if you'd seen the injury Valencia got against Rangers you'd have thought at the time he might never walk properly again nevermind play yet within 7 months he was back better than before, Wes Brown another one, yet folk are still defending Shaw because of an injury from nearly 5 years ago, I just don't get it.
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Shaw was probably worthy of your criticism last season,and at times during the start of this season.But his performances have improved significantly over the last 2 months.He looked very impressive against City and I can clearly see some consistency in his game.I think the next 12 months is going to be pivotal for his United career.

If he continues to get bogged down by injuries or if his performances dip again,then he”ll obviously be in trouble.But hopefully he’s turned a corner over these last few months...
 
Nikelesh Reddy said:
Shaw was probably worthy of your criticism last season,and at times during the start of this season.But his performances have improved significantly over the last 2 months.He looked very impressive against City and I can clearly see some consistency in his game.I think the next 12 months is going to be pivotal for his United career.

If he continues to get bogged down by injuries or if his performances dip again,then he”ll obviously be in trouble.But hopefully he’s turned a corner over these last few months...
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He has improved but lets be honest he couldn't have got worse and it's only because he's being seriously pushed by Williams for his position, but even with his vast experience(for his age)he's still far too easy to play against at fullback, get him static and he's far too easily beat on either side.In stride defensively no problem.

He might have a chance of a good career as a LCB, but probably somewhere else.
 
Williams is only better in the attacking threat where he is much more fluid with his movement when going forward & better crosser. However, others things such as passing, touch, composure or even defending, Shaw is the better player.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
Shaw is caught on his heels every game. Go back and watch every time he gets a yellow card, it's because he got done for pace and/or didn't have his feet sorted out and had to pull back the attacker or block them off. I'm not talking about 100 yard dash or whatever. In either case, Williams is much faster.
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I think you will find few who agree that Shaw lacks pace. He’s a little slow on the turn, but he’s easily beaten Salah for pace on a few occasions. His top speed and thus recovery speed is probably amongst the best in the team. He leaves too much space in behind him, however, and he isn’t great at closing down the attacker, so therefore too many crosses coming in from his side.
 
Wing Attack Plan R said:
I don't know. It looks to me like Shaw thinks he will be able to turn and catch up to the attacker but then realizes too late the attacker is going to leave him for dead.
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There are times it almost feels the opposite. I remember in one of our last games he easily had the attacker beat for pace if he'd just gone down the outside as he raced back, but instead he came in right behind the attacker and bought him down.
 
MadDogg said:
There are times it almost feels the opposite. I remember in one of our last games he easily had the attacker beat for pace if he'd just gone down the outside as he raced back, but instead he came in right behind the attacker and bought him down.
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Not sure what it is then. You and Rossa above you could be right, or I'm not expressing it clearly. My view is that something in Shaw's game causes him to be chasing attackers when he should be stopping them while facing them. If he catches up to them and tackles them, maybe that means he does have pace. I see it as a flaw in the way he plays, and when I see him running after someone who just ghosted around him, it's a problem. Not looking for an argument. I like Shaw, I just like Williams better. Stay safe.
 
UNITED ACADEMY said:
Williams is only better in the attacking threat where he is much more fluid with his movement when going forward & better crosser. However, others things such as passing, touch, composure or even defending, Shaw is the better player.
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Agree. However, if Williams works hard on those things you mention he will soon be pushing very hard for Shaws place. Huge potential in that kid.
 
Now we all can see how this guy is important for us. In defence and attack. Especially we can see how his attacking play is underrated.
Lots of fans rate attacking play of full backs by how much and good they cross the ball and how many times they run down the wing but Shaw's biggest strength is that he is for full back excellent on the ball and because of that we have a player who can link good with midfielders.

He is on different level comparing with our other full backs. We have amazing full back and we are still not aware how good he is.
 
Andycoleno9 said:
He is on different level comparing with our other full backs. We have amazing full back and we are still not aware how good he is.
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The way he keeps possession as well. Shaw is one of the better LB's in the PL.
 
romufc said:
The way he keeps possession as well. Shaw is one of the better LB's in the PL.
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Exactly. I wrote about that in some other threads. United fans (maybe other fans also but i can't talk about that) have unique approach to players:
Stage one; " ooo, shiny new toy. I like. World class. Best player in PL"
Stage two: " Hm, he has flaws"
Stage three: " Get rid, not good enough, give me new shiny toy".
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Exactly. I wrote about that in some other threads. United fans (maybe other fans also but i can't talk about that) have unique approach to players:
Stage one; " ooo, shiny new toy. I like. World class. Best player in PL"
Stage two: " Hm, he has flaws"
Stage three: " Get rid, not good enough, give me new shiny toy".
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Yep, I agree.

LB is probably the position we have to look at last. Williams is developing and can do a job there, there is no point wasting valuable funds on a LB at the moment.

We have a limited budget, why spend £20/30m on a LB who wont be better than Shaw?
 
romufc said:
Yep, I agree.

LB is probably the position we have to look at last. Williams is developing and can do a job there, there is no point wasting valuable funds on a LB at the moment.

We have a limited budget, why spend £20/30m on a LB who wont be better than Shaw?
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As i said way ago. There are only few fb who are clearly better then Shaw. And they would cost a fortune. Only reason before this season i was in dilemma about Shaw is his injury history. Bit this year he was good regarding that. 2 minor injuries as i recall
 
Andycoleno9 said:
Now we all can see how this guy is important for us. In defence and attack. Especially we can see how his attacking play is underrated.
Lots of fans rate attacking play of full backs by how much and good they cross the ball and how many times they run down the wing but Shaw's biggest strength is that he is for full back excellent on the ball and because of that we have a player who can link good with midfielders.

He is on different level comparing with our other full backs. We have amazing full back and we are still not aware how good he is.
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I could not agree more, mate. A few of us have been saying the same for a long, long time.

Also, as unpopular as this opinion might be, I think he's better defensively than Spider-Man, too. AWB obviously has the edge in 1v1s but Shaw, imo, is better at everything else. Better positioning, better at covering his CB if they (Maguire) is out of position, and is a lot better in the air.

Shaw's aerial game is severely underrated. He always wins his headers at the back post, and it's not just that he gets his head on the ball, he manages to always aim said header away from danger, too. I think his technical quality is underrated as well (he has one of the best first touches in the league), but his aerial game hardly ever gets the praise it deserves.
 
Yagami said:
I could not agree more, mate. A few of us have been saying the same for a long, long time.

Also, as unpopular as this opinion might be, I think he's better defensively than Spider-Man, too. AWB obviously has the edge in 1v1s but Shaw, imo, is better at everything else. Better positioning, better at covering his CB if they (Maguire) is out of position, and is a lot better in the air.

Shaw's aerial game is severely underrated. He always wins his headers at the back post, and it's not just that he gets his head on the ball, he manages to always aim said header away from danger, too. I think his technical quality is underrated as well (he has one of the best first touches in the league), but his aerial game hardly ever gets the praise it deserves.
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Absolutely. One on one AWB is the best in league and there is no winger who he can't stop. But overall Shaw is better defender for me also.
 
Shaw is our best fullback and Lindelöf our best central defender. Ole not so amazing in the market as people think.
Although Bruno is bloody good.
 
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