Luke Shaw is confident better times are coming for Manchester United, with things already improving from last season’s debacle.
Under the stewardship of first Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and then interim boss Ralf Rangnick, United endured their worst ever Premier League season, racking up a feeble 58 points from their 38 league encounters.
United’s demise from perennial champions to also-rans has forced Old Trafford chiefs into a major rethink, with new manager Erik ten Hag given carte blanche to revamp the squad in his image. The former Ajax boss arrives in English football with an impressive reputation for building youthful sides which play an exciting, attacking brand of football.
And Shaw is optimistic that the early signs show that the new man in the dugout is already implementing things his predecessors failed to. "It's clear that he's a top, top manager," the left back said of Ten Hag, during the club’s pre-season tour.
"He has a structure to play the way he wants us to play. We haven't had that for quite a while, and it was clear to see last season, which was extremely disappointing.
"We have to bounce back, and he has been working us extremely hard, but I think we need it. We're really looking forward to this season because I know it's going to be much better than the last one."
HAVE YOUR SAY! Sum up Man Utd's upcoming season in one word in the comments section below
Shaw, who saw his form tail off following England’s run to the Euro 2020 final last summer, was asked to sum up the squad’s outlook for the upcoming campaign with one word, opting for “trophy”. Team-mates Raphael Varane and Anthony Martial were pressed to do the same, responding with “ambition” and “victory” respectively.
The positivity surrounding Ten Hag’s first summer in charge is already light and shade from the tumultuous and often tortuous 2021/22 campaign, which saw Shaw take public shots at the underperforming players within the squad.
Following the 1-0 home defeat by Wolves in January, Shaw offered a brutally honest verdict on the state of the squad at that time. “Not good enough, we really struggled, we couldn’t get hold of the ball and when we didn’t have the ball we weren’t aggressive enough. We didn’t put them under any pressure.
“It maybe looked like an easy game for them [Wolves]. A disappointing performance and result. We didn’t have many options on the ball and we weren’t on the front foot.
“Us players, we have been here a long time, maybe tonight we struggled, I didn’t think we were all there together. You look at the players we have, we have unbelievable quality but sometimes quality is not enough.
“We need to bring the intensity and more motivation. Inside the dressing room, we know what we want but out on the pitch we need to give 100%. To win these types of games we all need to be 100 per cent committed. It is tough and disappointing.”
United’s pre-season commitments officially get underway on Tuesday (July 12) when they take on old foes Liverpool in Bangkok. They will then head to Australia facing off first against Melbourne Victory and then Premier League opponents in Crystal Palace and Aston Villa.
