Luke Shaw has started every league match for Manchester United this seasonplaceholder image
Luke Shaw has started every league match for Manchester United this season | Getty Images
Man Utd only have one player who has started every Premier League match this season.
He might not have made the same attacking contributions as Bryan Mbeumo or Bruno Fernandes, nor has he shone defensively quite as brightly as Harry Maguire or Senne Lammens. What he has done, is be available every single week, for the majority of every single match.
Shaw is the only United player to have started all 27 league matches this season, and is one of only 20 players who have started every Premier League match for their club this campaign. He also leads the way at United for minutes played across all competitions, even though he didn't feature in either of their cup matches. They lost both without him.
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He might not have hit the same heights as some of his club teammates, but he hasn't had too many lows either. Shaw has found a level of consistency in both his performance and fitness that has made him a key part of the first-team squad under former teammate Michael Carrick, though just as impressive is that he was so important under Ruben Amorim as well.
The 30-year-old has already made as many appearances this season as he did in the previous two campaigns combined, with Shaw one of the biggest winners from the reduced fixture schedule. A trickier test will come next season, when United hope to be in the Champions League again, but he has certainly proved he has what it takes to be a key part of the squad for a little while longer.
"He's in a good place, Luke," Carrick told reporters in his pre-match press conference ahead of the weekend match with Crystal Palace. "I think, again, experience helps in terms of managing load, managing your body, understanding what it is to get through a season, and putting a run of games together. I think that that in itself is probably underestimated, you know, game-to-game and being fit for the next game, but actually being able to do it over a long period of time, sometimes it takes a bit of adjusting.
"He's been good for a long time, Luke, and especially this season to have that consistency. just shows how much experience he has has helped him."
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