The rocky relationship Luke Shaw endured with Jose Mourinho during the Portuguese boss’ time at Man United has been rehashed during the ongoing European Championship, with the Special One, who joined talkSPORT as a pundit for the summer tournament, resuming his critiques of the Englishman.
Prior to their opening game against Croatia, Mourinho opted against naming Shaw in his ideal Three Lions lineup, going for Ben Chilwell instead despite the Red Devils ace’s remarkable 2020/21 campaign. Neither featured in the 1-0 victory over Modric and Co. but the former Southampton left-back has gone on to start the two following fixtures – the 0-0 draw with Scotland and the 1-0 victory over Czech Republic – and put in rock-solid displays.
Nonetheless, Mourinho found ground for criticism, singling out the defender’s poor set-pieces, labeling his delivery as “dramatically bad”. These comments were brought forward to Shaw, who had remained quiet for the most part about his thoughts on the Special One, garnering a sensational response from the Old Trafford player.
Speaking ahead of England’s highly-anticipated round of 16 showdown with Germany, the 25-year-old hit back at the newly-appointed Roma boss, stating that Jose is obsessed with him and should move on after their rough two-and-a-half-year spell together at the Theatre of Dreams.
“I don’t understand it,’ Shaw said, as per the Daily Mail, with the British tabloid pointing out that he had a “wry smile” on his face while addressing this issue. “I don’t know why he is still going on and wanting to point at me.
“I don’t feel like the set-pieces were as bad as he was saying. I might have done one in the second half, a corner, that didn’t get over the first man. But that was one out of three. The other two or three, I don’t think, were as ‘dramatically bad’ as he says.
“Look, he has got to do his job. I’m used to him saying negative stuff about me, so I just pass it by.
“His voice is obviously very big. He likes to talk a lot about me, as everyone has seen recently. But his voice is his own. He can say what he wants, I will focus on myself. I take set-pieces at United, so it wasn’t as if it was something I wasn’t ready for.”
Shaw went on to address the Special One’s management style and pointed out that several other members of the England national team picked up on Mourinho’s “obsession” with the left-back, adding:
“He likes some players, he doesn’t like others.
“I fell into the category where he didn’t like me. I tried as hard as I could to get back into his side but it never worked out, no matter what I did. There is no hiding that we didn’t get on.
“I think he was a brilliant manager but, you know, the past is the past. It’s time to move on. I’m trying to move on but obviously he can’t. He continuously talks about me, which I find quite strange. Even some of the lads (here) have said ‘what’s his problem?’ and ‘why does he keep talking?”
“Hopefully, he can find his peace with that and stop worrying about me. Clearly, I’m in his head a lot and he thinks about me a lot. I don’t think any of you realize the two or three years I had with him and how bad (the criticism) was then. What he says now is nothing compared to how it used to be.”
One argument in Jose’s defense is that he is simply doing his job. Having joined talkSPORT for their summer coverage of Euro 2020, the Portuguese managerial icon is obliged to talk about Gareth Southgate’s players, which includes Luke Shaw.
Nonetheless, the defender is solely focused on Tuesday’s round of 16 fixture as Harry Kane and Co. gear up for battle with the Germans. Victory will take them into the quarter-finals, where they will face one of Sweden or Ukraine. Whether they can beat die Mannschaft is the question everyone’s wondering.
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