Manchester United equalised in the 96th minute to grab a point from their Premier League game against Bournemouth on Sunday which ended 1-1.
Rasmus Hojlund, who was anonymous for almost the whole game, ended his goalless drought by netting late on to save Ruben Amorim’s blushes, especially as the hosts were playing with 10 men since the 70th minute.
As indicated during the pre-match press conference, the head coach picked a strong XI for the game but it did not pay immediate dividends as it was the hosts who took an early lead through Antoine Semenyo.
Another huge call taken by the Portuguese tactician was handing Luke Shaw his first start of the season. The Englishman last started for the Red Devils back on February 18th 2024, 434 days ago.
Shaw was rusty early on
And that rustiness showed as the 29-year-old lost all his ground duels while also failing to win a single tackle. He also lost possession a whopping 17 times.
The left-back was partly to blame for the Bournemouth goal as he dilly-dallied with the ball, opting to invite pressure before putting Patrick Dorgu in a spot of bother which ultimately led to the Cherries winning the ball back near the box.
But once the home side went down to 10, Amorim opted to shift Shaw out wide for the final 15 minutes, which is where he is most dangerous and ultimately it was his ball inside the box that led to Hojlund’s goal.
The ex-Southampton ace managed to complete 54 passes, the most among any player out on the pitch, with four of them being key passes.
Three of his long balls also found their mark and he created three chances while attempting one shot. He also won all three of his aerial duels (stats via fotmob).
Dangerous out wide
The head coach admitted after the game that he had no intention of playing Shaw for the entire 90 minutes given his injury record, but trailing by a goal meant he was forced to take that step.
“It was not the plan to have 90 minutes but you need to win games. And you could feel that he was overloaded in that part of the field.
“He’s really good on crosses, he’s really good in the final third decision, he has a lot of quality. When we are losing or drawing, you don’t think about the next game. You need to win. I was not focused on the next game.”
With Diogo Dalot potentially out for the season, there is a good chance Shaw’s minutes will see a dramatic rise ahead of huge games coming up.
Amorim will hope the England international can shake off his rustiness and improve upon Sunday’s performance ahead of a season-defining clash against Athletic Club in the Europa League semi-finals.
Feature image Ryan Pierse via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
