Manchester United were thrashed 0-3 by noisy neighbours Manchester City in the Manchester derby last weekend, thereby heaping further pressure on Ruben Amorim.
The backline was at fault for all three, with Luke Shaw receiving brickbats for his performance at the Etihad. He allowed Jeremy Doku to bamboozle him for the first, even though the City winger is a one-trick pony.
And then for the second, Erling Haaland bullied him easily to score past a hapless Altay Bayindir.
Rio Ferdinand, on his Rio Presents channel, lambasted the Englishman, claiming he had no sense of the danger surrounding him and as a result was always late to react.
Did not sense danger
“In the derby, he just isn’t sensing the danger and he’s not covering the other players. He’s not getting his arms across his body to block Haaland. He’s reacting too late – he’s not smelling danger at all.
“When I look at it, I don’t think it’s a system issue. Take that goal, for example, where [Nico] O’Reilly nutmegs someone, pops it around the corner, and runs to the other side – and suddenly it’s through for Haaland.
“That’s great football; you sometimes have to say in the midfield area it’s great football.
“But defensively, from a Luke Shaw standpoint, I thought it was poor, and it could have been avoided. I just think there were too many defensive mistakes – we got opened up far too easily.”
Far too many mistakes
Roy Keane claimed after the game that Luke Shaw did not bust a gut to cover his initial error, and it almost seemed like he had thrown in the towel.
The England international will point to the fact that he is having to play as a left-sided centre-back in a back three instead of his usual fullback position.
But he is currently 30, and has been at United for more than 11 years now. He should be doing far better.
Which explains why INEOS are keen to get rid of him, given his performance levels and his poor injury record.
Feature image Mike Hewitt 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
