Luke Shaw’s fitness story has been one of the biggest boosts for Man Utd this season, but Michael Carrick has to bear the hidden cost of it.
When the season began, if Man Utd fans were asked who would be the player with the most minutes played by March, Luke Shaw would be nobody’s top name.
Forget top name, he’d probably not crack the top five, so his transformation this season into Man Utd’s ironman is commendable.
Unfortunately, if one were to look beyond the number of minutes played, it quickly becomes clear that this boost is coming at a hidden cost to Michael Carrick.
Michael Carrick, Manager of Manchester United, talks with Luke Shaw of Manchester United during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on February 07, 2026
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Luke Shaw’s fitness boost has a hidden cost
Before going into details, it is worth crediting Shaw just for managing to come back and play so regularly after an injury-stricken last season.
Having said that, he was largely helped by Ruben Amorim transitioning him into a wide centre-back in a back three instead of a full-back or wing-back.
Amorim accepted publicly that he needed to manage Shaw’s load, and putting him in a less intensive CB position helped him do that.
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The reality is that Shaw is playing more than ever, but it’s coming at the hidden cost of managing his intensity when he’s on the pitch.
In a back-three setup, that cost was minuscule, as the wide centre-back wasn’t a dynamic part of the game in either phase.
Things have changed since Amorim’s sacking, as Shaw has gone back to being the left-back, and with that, Carrick is being forced to bear this hidden cost.
Michael Carrick has a Shaw dilemma
Carrick’s style of play is such that he likes to use a lopsided full-back system where one full-back stays high and wide, and the other tucks in to form a back-three in possession.
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In an ideal world, Shaw would be the flying full-back in attack to make use of his ball-carrying and final-threat dynamism, with Diogo Dalot loving his buildup role.
As it stands, because Shaw is not someone who can run up and down the whole wing during a game, Carrick has had to compromise.
Dalot is overlapping with regularity and predictably struggling in the final third, and United are lacking width on the opposite flank because Shaw doesn’t overlap as often, and Matheus Cunha cuts inside.
It’s why Patrick Dorgu became so important for Carrick. It’s not a coincidence that United haven’t looked at their best since his, or Lisandro Martinez’s injury.
Effectively, Dorgu’s dynamism and Martinez’s ball-progression combined to compensate for Shaw’s role as a defensive left-back.
With both gone, and Shaw not being able to stretch himself to the limit, it became easy to stifle United, with the chicken finally coming home to roost in the loss against Newcastle.
Shaw is no longer injury-prone, but he is no longer a difference-maker. He’s just an able body to throw at the left-back position who can do his job without much fuss.
United need more than that.
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