Which player needs a better goal celebration?

Fans were last at the Theatre of Dreams on 8 March 2020 for a raucous victory over Manchester City that will always be remembered for the electric atmosphere that followed Scott McTominay’s late winner. 

Scenes like those are exactly why we all love football and behind-closed-doors matches just aren’t the same, even though we have all been grateful for them throughout this testing pandemic. 

There is some hope that fans will return before the end of this season after the Government published a ‘roadmap out of lockdown’ last month, which offers a glimmer of hope for match-going Reds. 

Shaw admits he is impatient to play in front of our unrivalled supporters again and hopes to experience that goalscoring feeling, having become a potent attacking threat this season, scoring our second goal in the derby win last weekend. 

“I would love the fans to be back so bad because you know I'm missing the noise,” explained Luke in his chat with United fan Harry Pinero for adidas before Sunday's 2-0 victory.

“Hopefully, I can score soon and I want the fans in to celebrate because the lads were saying yesterday, it's not normal when you score!”

Expanding on the dressing-room conversations about fans, Shaw jokes there is one member of the squad who needs to up their game when it comes to celebrations. 

“I said to Jamo [Daniel James] yesterday, 'we need to get you a new celebration because what you're doing isn’t good enough!’

“He's like a little kid isn't he? He just doesn't know what to do, he just runs about.”

Of course, it’s only natural that we allow our Wales international the opportunity to defend himself, so we’ll make sure to ask him about his goal celebration – or lack of – in the coming weeks.  

In James's defence, his shows of passion after scoring have been extremely well received by fans throughout his flourishing United career - none more so than his debut goal against Chelsea at Old Trafford in August 2019.

THE FORM OF HIS LIFE

Elsewhere in his adidas interview, Shaw discusses his much-praised performances this season and admits it has been a confidence boost to receive so many plaudits. 

“Nowadays the way I play I think a lot of people are thinking that I was holding back [in the past] and knew what I could do,” he explains with a smile. 

“I'm feeling good with creating and obviously my target for each game is to win the game for the team with whatever I can do. Now I'm loving going forward, trying to help and create for the team.”

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY?

It's back to business for Ole's Reds with the focus shifting firmly to Thursday's Europa League round-of-16 first leg with AC Milan at Old Trafford.

We'll take a look at the early team news from both camps and begin to preview the occasion, as the Rossoneri continue to perform well in Serie A, with Diogo Dalot scoring his first league goal for his loan club in the weekend win over Verona.

There is the likelihood we will catch up with Fred at some point in the day to discuss his display at the Etihad Stadium and look ahead to the challenges on the horizon for the Reds.

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY?

We reflected on the excellent derby victory at the Etihad Stadium, focusing on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Dean Henderson, Luke Shaw and Anthony Martial.

While we hope Marcus Rashford will not be out with an ankle problem on Thursday, Milan appear to have received a boost regarding Zlatan Ibrahimovic's availability. Our former striker looked certain to be sidelined but could now make the first leg of the Europa League tie, according to the latest reports coming out of Italy.

Shola Shoretire was nominated for the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award.

It was the anniversary of the last time fans were allowed into the Theatre of Dreams, when we beat City, 2-0 again, in 2020.