New Man Utd head coach Ruben Amorim admits Luke Shaw “wants to play more” after his appearance against Everton on Sunday.
The Red Devils headed into their 4-0 win against the Toffees having drawn their first Premier League match under Amorim last Sunday against newly-promoted Ipswich Town, before coming from 2-1 down to beat Bodo/Glimt 3-2 in a midweek Europa League tie.
And Marcus Rashford – who scored their only goal against the Tractor Boys – was at the double against Sean Dyche’s Everton side, while much-criticised Joshua Zirkzee got a brace of his own on a perfect afternoon at Old Trafford.
That result moves Man Utd up to ninth in the Premier League table, above Aston Villa, Newcastle and Fulham as Amorim has the supporters looking up.
All of Shaw’s appearances this season have come in Amorim’s three matches in charge of Man Utd with the England international just over 30 minutes in each of the Portuguese coach’s first three fixtures in all competitions.
Injury-hit Shaw is still waiting for his first start since February in a Man Utd shirt, although he did start for England as they lost 2-1 to Spain in the Euro 2024 final in Germany.
And, with a number of players coming back from injury, Amorim admits he is facing a selection headache with Shaw wanting to start more matches.
Amorim told reporters: “We have lots of players returning from injury, Kobbie Mainoo was a little bit of a risk because he was to play just 60 minutes … Luke Shaw wants to play more, but we have to control it, we have to rotate the team. In the future we will have a different system, you can see more of a starting XI.”
The new Man Utd boss knows the Red Devils “were pragmatic” rather than spectacular against Everton but Amorim was pleased with his side’s performance at Old Trafford.
Amorim added: “The result was good but we were pragmatic. It was not pretty, I think, but we were pragmatic. We did our job, which is to win, but you can feel we have a long way to go. You can feel, in the first minutes, that we are okay, and then Everton control a little bit the game.
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“Then, in the right moments, we had the goals that changed the game a little bit. So you have to not just focus on the result but focus on the way the result appeared. We have so much to do but it’s better to work with the victories. Let’s focus on the performance more than results.
“It was a really tough match and, in the important moments, we could score and that changed the game. Sometimes, we have to suffer and I felt that everybody is suffering together and that is really important.
“Also the supporters because you can feel it and I know they want more in this moment. They want a better game but they understand we need time. But we have to congratulate the players, they changed the game.
“We need fresh legs and then they are good players and they can solve some problems that the team cannot solve at the moment. The players are helping a lot so congratulations to the players. We have a lot to do so this result doesn’t change anything. It has just given us more strength and more joy to work on our game idea.”