Luke Shaw thinks Jose Mourinho “needs to move on and stop worrying about me” after his former manager fired yet more criticism his way.
The Manchester United full-back has been publicly singled out on a number of occasions by Mourinho. During his time as manager at Old Trafford, he questioned the defender’s professionalism and attitude, as well as his ‘football brain’.
His often-ruthless judgement of the 25-year-old hasn’t slowed down in recent years either. After England’s most recent European Championship clash against Czech Republic, the current AS Roma manager described Shaw’s set-piece delivery as “very poor” and “dramatically bad”.
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Shaw, who is likely to start at left-back for England on Tuesday night against Germany, has now commented on Mourinho’s latest jibe with some honest opinions of his own.
“I don’t really understand it, to be honest,” he said via The Guardian. “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. He has got his opinion. I am used to him saying negative stuff about me now, so I just pass it by. I leave it be, I ignore it. I just focus on what the coaching staff say here, what Gareth says and that’s that, really.
“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.”
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Shaw did label Mourinho a “brilliant manager” during the interview but admitted to finding it “quite strange” that he continues to talk about him.
“There is no hiding that we didn’t get on,” he added.
“I think he was a brilliant manager but, you know, the past is the past. It is time to move on. I am trying to move on but, obviously, he can’t.
“He continuously talks about me, which I find quite strange. Even some of the lads have said ‘what’s his problem?’ and ‘why does he keep talking?’
“He just needs to move on. Hopefully, he can find his peace with that and finally move on and stop worrying about me. Clearly, I am in his head a lot and he clearly thinks about me a lot.”
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The left-back was then asked if he can laugh off the criticism.
“Yes, because I don’t think any of you realise the two or three years I had with him and how bad it was then, what it was like then,” he said.
“What he says now is nothing compared to how it used to be. I am being totally honest. I am so past it now. I have grown up a lot.
“The three years I had with him, I learnt a lot. I find it easy to ignore him now and even laugh about it. But it’s better just to ignore it and move on with my life.”
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Shaw recently spoke to SPORTbible about his battle with Mourinho and the key differences between him and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the helm.
“It was a mixed relationship,” he admitted. “A lot of the things that happened between us two, sometimes he went about it in the right way. I think a lot of people will agree with that at the club.
“Our relationship wasn’t the best. It was probably quite easy to see that from the outside. But one thing Jose did do was make me mentally much stronger. I think mental strength is what I would describe that period under Jose Mourinho.
“I think I felt part of the team under Ole, whereas under Jose sometimes I didn’t. Ole showed his belief and confidence in me. I always believed good times were coming. I stuck in and dug deep; went through a lot but come out better on the other side.”
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Thoughts on Mourinho’s comments? Has Shaw got a point?
Let us know in the comments.
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