Erik ten Hag has hailed Luke Shaw as one of Manchester United's leaders after the defender produced another authoritative performance at centre half.
Left-back Shaw has started four of the last five games at centre-back and he helped restrict Manchester City to one attempt on target in United's 2-1 win at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Shaw started the season but was substituted at half-time with United 4-0 down in their second fixture at Brentford. The England international eventually regained his place at Everton on October 9 and Shaw has started every Premier League game since.
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"I like that he’s so honest," Ten Hag said. "After the second game he didn’t play and said: ‘I fully understand, my performance is not right’.
"But from the first day in training at pre-season he was working really hard and you can see when he has the right approach he’s a top player - I don’t mean only as a team player, he’s a leader.
"He’s showed a lot of leadership capacities - he’s the example at this moment - and with his skills and with his physical power he brings a lot to the team. But now also with his mentality.
"He’s an example of how to win big games. I’m really happy with his development. I think it’s been huge either at centre-half or left full back, he’s a great player and a great personality for the dressing room."
Erling Haaland and Phil Foden both plundered hat-tricks in City's 6-3 thrashing of United at the Etihad in October but Foden was substituted before the hour mark at Old Trafford and the closest Haaland came to testing David de Gea was with a blocked shot in the first half.
There was some surprise Ten Hag retained Shaw at centre half when Lisandro Martinez had played 90 minutes against Charlton four days earlier.
"It is a big decision but I think when you analyse the profile of (Erling) Haaland and the combination with (Kevin) de Bruyne it was also the right decision," Ten Hag explained. "Because Luke has the physical power to compete with them and also has the tactical view to make the right decision and technical skills to play in that position.
"So I think it matched really well 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.
"And I think we have more players in our squad who have the capacity to be multi-functional and we can use that as a weapon in games."
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