Manchester United vs West Ham team news and match preview
Man Utd have shown signs of improvement under Ruben Amorim this season.
Shaw impressed again as United came from behind to defeat Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, and is enjoying a lengthy run in the team, aided by their reduced fixture schedule. He has already made one more appearance than he managed across all of last season and almost played double the minutes he managed as well.
The experienced defender has deputised well while Lisandro Martinez has been injured and now faces a fresh challenge to keep the Argentine out of the starting line up. Martinez made his first appearance in almost 10 months when he replaced Shaw for the final 12 minutes at Selhurst Park over the weekend.
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Amorim reveals key to Shaw resurgence
Luke Shaw has put his horrendous injury record behind him to become a key part of the Manchester United first-team squad and will hope to retain his integral role for the remainder of the season.
When asked for the key to his resurgence, Ruben Amorim told reporters: "We took special consideration in the beginning. When we are building the player we have to be careful. Trying to control the load. Not putting so many minutes," he said in his pre-match press conference ahead of the upcoming West Ham clash.
"Even the position is completely different. If you change the position. you know that the demands of that different position he is going to struggle. He adapts really well to that position because sometimes he's playing with the ball like a fullback. But he's defending more deeply. He's really smart. For me I said already I think he's a world class player. Of course he needs more continuity. Like he's showing this season. We are playing just one game per week. That helps a lot. If he needs three days to recover he's not needing it now. But if he needs it we can give him. So I think it's everything combined. We are not taking special measures for him in this moment but we had to do it in the beginning. When he was starting to have more minutes."
Asked if it was too demanding for Shaw to play at wing-back, Amorim added: "No, no, no. It's different. You have to train there. Before you think to put a different player in that position you need to train there. Or he needs to do some minutes and then he needs to come off. Or return to a different position. But he's ready to if we need him. Maybe we are going to need him in this system, he can play there."
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