Shaw's shouts for Player of the Year
Hi everyone, I’m not sure how interesting this will be for a lot of people, but it was a big day in our house on Monday because it was the first day of weaning for Reign!
The little man had his first taste of real food when we fed him some carrot and it was amazing just watching him deal with it because it shows how he’s growing up. So that was the big news in our house over the last week!
In football terms, we had a really hard week of training last week, so we had the weekend off and we were back into the hard graft on Monday. We’re all keeping fit, all doing the group calls and obviously waiting to see what’s happening with the Premier League.
I’d love to be sat here talking about football with some more clarity, but obviously things haven’t particularly changed too much. At least one of my mates has had some good news – he’s a big golfer and he’s thrilled he can be back out on the courses now.
Over the weekend I realised that it was a year since I won our Player of the Year award last May, which was a huge honour for me, absolutely massive. Winning that award for any club is great, but at a club the size of United it means a bit more.
I didn’t think I actually had the best of years – I know I did well in some aspects during the season, but there were definitely areas I could improve in and I took some positives from that too because it meant I could still get even better.
To win the two awards voted for by the fans and your team-mates was a very special feeling for me, especially when you look at the trophies and see the names who have won it before. Ronaldo, Keane, Beckham, Giggs… I mean, wow.
Look at what them and the other winners have achieved in the game, they were all wonderful players and had amazing careers. It inspired me – and still inspires me – to keep pushing myself further so that I can be anywhere near as successful as them.
Obviously this season’s awards are very much up in the air because of the season being on hold, but I think it would be a hard call to name a winner of the 2019/20 Player of the Year based on the campaign so far.
If Marcus Rashford had been fit for the whole campaign and hadn’t suffered his injury, I think he would have won without any doubt at all. Rashy would be pushing for the best player of the season across the entire league because he was that good. He was on fire at times and gave the whole team a massive boost. It was the best and most confident I’ve seen him, so he’s absolutely, definitely, a contender.
After that, it gets tricky because so many players have been really good in parts, but I have to say that Fred would be up there. Everyone knows that when you come to a big club like United, it isn’t always easy to settle in at the start and be the player that you can be straight away.
He’s adapted to the Premier League this season, his qualities have shone through and he’s been a bright light for us. It’s even nicer to see after he had his doubters outside the club. Fred believed in himself and has had a great season.
Beyond those two, I think Harry Maguire has been immense, but I can’t look past Aaron Wan-Bissaka. For me, he’s been the most consistent player this season. If you look back at all the games we played, I can remember only one mistake, for the penalty at Watford, and that has literally been it.
He has been a solid eight out of ten in every other game he’s played, never puts a foot wrong, puts his foot in the right position every time and, for me, he’s the best one v one defender in the world. No-one can get past him, he’s really improved that side of his game and his attacking side too.
You can see Azza is learning each day and wanting to learn more too. He’s been a superb signing for us, so I have to have him in there. There are more who I could make a case for, but I’ll stick with those three: Rashford, Fred and Wan-Bissaka.
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