Manchester United defender Luke Shaw was brilliant against Manchester City last weekend during the Manchester derby at Old Trafford.
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag has explained why he started Luke Shaw at centre-back against Manchester City last weekend in the Premier League.
Ten Hag decided to leave Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire on the bench to start with Luke Shaw as Raphael Varane’s partner and the England international didn’t disappoint.
Shaw silenced Erling Haaland, and helped limit Manchester City to only one shot on target in the entirerity of the game at the Theatre of Dreams.
The former Southampton left-back has started more at centre-back than at left-back since the restart of club action in December and United had won all games Shaw played as centre-back.
As a result, it wasn’t much of a gamble to start him against City and the United boss has explained his reason behind the tactical change.
“When you analyse the profile of Haaland and the combination with De Bruyne it was the right decision – Luke has the physical power to compete with them and tactical view to make the right decision and technical skills to play there,” said Ten Hag.
“I think [against Man City] it matched really well [Shaw at centre-back], but I think in other games he can contribute even more on the left in the wide positions so it’s a tactical choice and we can see from game to game what we need.”