Honest comments from Luke Shaw about his place in the Manchester United squad prove the Old Trafford giants might have finally learned from Jose Mourinho's misguided attempts to motivate the England international during his time as manager at the club.
Shaw, 25, has started the last two Premier League games after being summoned from the subs bench at half-time when Manchester City swept Erik ten Hag and his team aside in the Manchester derby; that after Shaw was hauled off in similar circumstances against Brentford in a humbling early-season defeat.
It comes as part of an ongoing 'fight' for the left-back position with Tyrell Malacia - competition which will benefit both players and United as a whole moving forward. But while Malacia is a Ten Hag signing, the Dutchman has also seemingly made his mark on Shaw with his approach.
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Despite well-documented public criticism towards Shaw while he was United manager, Mourinho offered up a U-turn on the England player last summer when on Euro 2020 punditry duty. Speaking about Shaw on talkSPORT, the Portuguese said: "People think I don't like Luke Shaw. I have to say, [he had an] amazing tournament.
"No defensive mistakes, very solid, on top of that he improved and improved and improved. He scored a goal that doesn't mean much now but for him, for his career, for the way he grew up, very good."
Mourinho continued: "I always tried to find what I considered to be the weakness of the player and sometimes I'm successful, other times I'm not. Other times I can create empathy with the player and get the best out of them."
Fast forward to the present day and Shaw finds himself back in the current line-up following an early-season tangle with Malacia for one full-back role. Ten Hag was not so critical when dropping Shaw, but comments made from the England international following that decision show United have now struck the right note when it comes to their handling of him - with players each benefitting from different methods.
Shaw said: "I think the most important thing is the team. Whenever I play, I just do my best.
"The good thing with this manager [Ten Hag] is that, if you're not playing well, then you won't play. In the past it's not been the case, but the good thing about this manager is that he's keeping everyone on their toes."
Shaw added: "He makes sure that everyone is 100 per cent every day. If you're not at it, you won't play.
"I didn't really need him to say anything to me [when he was dropped]. I knew the first two games were nowhere near good enough, I completely understood that it was my time to come out of the team.
"Results were bad, my performances were not good enough. I had to keep training hard every day so the manager could see how hard I was working."
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