Luke Shaw has returned to better form in recent weeks since switching to a left-sided centre-back role. If he continues to improve he may secure a place in the England squad for the European Championship as well as his long-term future at Manchester United.
The 24-year-old defender has experienced some difficult periods at Old Trafford in his six seasons with the club, not least a broken leg suffered in 2015, but he now finally has his fate in his own hands. Shaw now has to ensure that no opportunity for progress is wasted. No manager can do that for him, nor can any new teammates.
Recently, Shaw and United’s fortunes have turned. The emergence of Brandon Williams has been a constructive threat, to make him realise that he is no longer the only option at left-back. Daley Blind, Marcos Rojo and Ashley Young were all compromise choices, and Shaw was the natural first choice.
Williams, however, has impressed coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and the fans. He has shown enough promise to be given more minutes. Consequently, Shaw is under threat by a young, hungry replacement.
The emergence of Williams also paradoxically offered Shaw a way back into the first team. He played very little football during the first half of the season, due to injury, but has been a more visible presence in recent months.
Solskjaer has settled on a tactical change that uses the strengths of his players and mitigates their weaknesses.
By using Williams as a left wing-back, Solskjaer is able to make the most of his positive play, but adds cover behind him by employing Shaw as a centre-back on the left of the three. In turn, Shaw is able to provide protection for the relatively immobile duo of Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof, and it also allows Maguire to step out of defence to bolster the midfield.
For United, who often struggle to defend and also find it difficult to break down massed defences, it gives an extra body in both midfield and defence.
Before transferring to United for a record £31 million ($40m / €37m) fee, Shaw was always keen on his Southampton coach Mauricio Pochettino. That is among the reasons he initially favoured a move to Tottenham after Pochettino departed St Mary’s. The Argentine used to make him smoothies in the morning.
A pleasant enough gesture, and one appreciated by Shaw, but it is hard now to take it as anything other than a sign from his former boss that he wanted him to take better care of his diet.
There have also been admonishments from Roy Hodgson, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho about his fitness levels, and he still looks bulkier than most professional footballers. That would matter less if performances had been consistently up to scratch.
Mourinho once praised Shaw’s performance levels, but, at the same time suggested it was only because the player was micromanaged from the technical area throughout the game.
Shaw’s pace has often saved him from poor positioning, but for the most part his defensive discipline and awareness has not improved since he emerged as a raw, teenage sensation.
There have, however, been problems out of his control. Van Gaal was ultimately not suited to managing United, and some players have not yet flushed out his rigidity from their systems. Mourinho’s increasingly abrasive manner, meanwhile, has a tendency to upset players in his stable, Shaw included.
But he has shown at Southampton and occasionally at United he has the talent, something which led to executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward and Mourinho offering a rich new contract at the back end of 2018.
Shaw is a frustrating figure, and patience over his lack of progress could well have run out by now at a better-run club. As it is, the clearout and rebuilding ahead is so extensive that he has been given another chance.