Left-back Luke Shaw is challenging Manchester United's youngsters to make the most of the pre-season opportunities that they are being awarded by manager Erik ten Hag.
The Dutchman, who has overseen victories in United's opening two pre-season friendlies, has included several youngsters his 31-man squad for the current tour of Thailand and Australia. A number of them have already featured in the opening two games against Liverpool and Melbourne Victory, such as Ethan Laird, Charlie Savage, Zidane Iqbal and Tahith Chong.
Savage and Iqbal have stepped off the bench at half-time in each of United's opening two pre-season outings, catching the eye in both matches. Iqbal, in particular, has been excellent, threatening to become the breakout star of the tour.
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Ten Hag, who will soon be reunited Ajax centre-back Lisandro Martinez at Old Trafford, is renowned for awarding young players with opportunities to prove their worth, with much of his success at Ajax built on bringing players through the academy system. And Shaw admits it is vitally important that the young players give Ten Hag food for thought — just like the senior members of the squad.
"You've always got to make the most of things like this," Shaw told club media. "This is their opportunity and a time to shine and to show yourself to the new manager, we're all in that situation anyway where we've got to show the manager what we can do.
"I think especially for the young lads it's really important because they know they have the backing of the club in terms of youth being very important here. You've seen it in years gone by when new youth players come through the system and into the first-team and that's a really big thing for the club.
"They need to take their opportunity but also not many get this opportunity so they need to enjoy it as well."
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