Luke Shaw in action.

The stats behind Shaw's great display

Saturday 30 March 2019 18:31

Luke Shaw was a convincing winner of our Man-of-the-Match award after another excellent outing at left-back in Manchester United's 2-1 win over Watford on Saturday.

The defender had to withdraw from the England squad during the break, and required some treatment towards the end of the game at Old Trafford, but he provided bundles of energy down the flanks and, of course, supplied one of the assists of the season to set up Marcus Rashford's opening goal.

Winning the ball deep in his own half, Shaw marauded forward and played a gorgeous, curling ball into the path of Rashford, who did the rest with a clinical finish past Watford's former United keeper Ben Foster.

"He has so much in his locker," commented Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in his press conference. "I can’t wait to see him just blossom. He is exceptional going forward and has sharpness defending as well. I thought he was top, top class until he got his cramp. It just shows you [his effort]. He’s struggled a little bit over the international break and couldn’t go away, it would have been great for him to go there and we’re disappointed he couldn’t, but we had to put him up today."

Luke Shaw receives treatment for cramp towards the end.

The 23-year-old beat off competition from fellow nominees Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata to win 58 per cent of the vote in our Official App, after MUTV pundits Ron Atkinson and Danny Webber named their three-man shortlist.

The outstanding display probably put himself in contention for March's Player-of-the-Month prize, with the poll set to run before our first game of April, at Wolves on Tuesday.

Shaw gained possession 10 times in all, more than anybody else, and only Ashley Young made more than his 77 touches in total, although Watford's Roberto Peyrera accumulated the same amount.

He played more passes than any Red, 56 with 36 of these coming in the opposition half, cleared the ball five times and won his only aerial duel.

His 'influencer rating' in the App was 88 per cent, while Anthony Martial, who scored the second goal, was his 'best mate' as he passed to the French forward the most.

Shaw praises Rashford after win over Watford Video

Shaw praises Rashford after win over Watford

Our Man of the Match, Luke Shaw, discusses his pass of the season contender, Rashford, Solskjaer and more...

The pass to Rashford was the full-back's second in the Premier League this term but it is a case of two in two games after he also crossed for his England colleague to score against Wolves in the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final last time out. 

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