Shaw: Chelsea came for a draw
TranscriptLuke Shaw feels the Blues' switch to a back five was responsible for an attritional afternoon at Old Trafford...
Are you looking at that as a decent point or are you looking at it as two points dropped? “I think two points dropped really. I feel like we created the better chances. Their keeper made wonderful saves at times. I feel also we defended much better than we have, especially against a very good team like Chelsea who have high-quality players all around the pitch. I feel like they didn’t really create much, and we did well in that aspect. But higher up the pitch we should have maybe took a goal, or maybe even two, and took three points.” Talking about the defending – obviously we know what happened the last time we were here – the difference from that day to this day says a lot, I guess? “Yeah, for sure. Even when we’re on the pitch now it feels different to what it was before. Before it was maybe not too concentrated and a lot of sloppy, silly mistakes – individual mistakes – and I think we’ve learned from that and we’ve worked hard in training. We knew we needed to improve, and I think we need to build on this today and take it to Wednesday.” I don’t think many people saw a 0-0 coming, when you look at the record of both teams this year. Do you think it was just a bit cagey out there? “Yeah, they were saying up there [on the TV] that neither team wanted to lose. You could see that with maybe the way they turned up with that formation – they haven’t played it [a back five] this season, so it was the first time. So I think maybe we felt that from them, but we always want to win every game. Of course it was important we didn’t lose today, and we’ll take one point rather than zero, but also we’re disappointed in the back of our minds that we didn’t take three.” And that would have been the perfect way to win it, wouldn’t it – Marcus and a last-minute winner in the top corner? “Yeah, I was right behind it and, like I said, their keeper was very good today. He made a couple of very good saves that kept them in the game. But we need to keep pushing. Of course we’re a bit disappointed we haven’t got three points but we need to just get our focus back, [because] we have a massive game on Wednesday that we need to win.” I don’t think there’s probably ever been a stronger bench in Manchester United’s history than today, but with games every three or four days, and another one coming up on Wednesday, that’s going to be important, isn’t it? “Yeah, of course. You say that, and I think it’s very good for the manager to maybe have those changes that he can make, but also very good for the team, because everyone wants to play. Everyone’s pushing. The ones on the bench want to be in the starting XI, so it’s good to have that healthy competition that is going to push the lads.”