published on in Celeb Gist

Manchester United - BBC Sport

It was a familiar tale for Luke Shaw at the weekend, yet another early withdrawal after concerns he may have picked up an injury.

In an already injury-blighted season, the left-back managed 45 minutes against Aston Villa before having to be replaced by natural centre-back Victor Lindelof.

While some injuries during his time with Manchester United have been unlucky or unfortunate, it still feels like this has been the story of his career with the club. In nearly 10 years since he joined, he has yet to reach the 300 appearances mark.

There has been plenty of purple patches during that time that have shown the potential that was always talked about when he was younger, but the frustration for fans has been the amount of times his momentum been curtailed.

Last season was one of those good spells.

He played more than 3500 minutes across all competitions in 2022-23, making 47 appearances and helping United to a League Cup trophy, FA Cup final and third spot in the Premier League.

In fact, the England international ended last season as arguably the club's best player at the back. He racked-up more minutes (2555), created more chances (34), played more successful passes (1552) and made more ball recoveries (189) than any United defender in the league.

The drop off this campaign is pretty stark.

By the same number of rounds in the Premier League last term, Shaw had already played 746 more minutes with 1663. He also had two assists to his name compared to none this season and played nearly double the amount of successful passes - 966 compared to 458.

He has still been able to make an impact going forward having created 13 chances this campaign, which sits him second only to Diogo Dalot among United's defenders. His mark of 13 is however still down on last season.

However, he does find himself off-the-pace in defence when it comes to tackles won (eight), duels won (34), recoveries made (56) and possession won (56).

After the win over Villa, boss Erik ten Hag said United would see how Shaw's injury develops and he may have to once again switch-up his backline.

At 28, Shaw should arguably be at the peak of his powers, however, he could be looking at an uncertain Old Trafford future come the summer when Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sir Dave Brailsford really begin to put their stamp on the club.

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