Time for Shaw? Van Gaal admits United’s full-backs were outperformed

Follow us on Google Discover

Louis van Gaal has said that Leicester City outperformed Manchester United in the full-back areas at the weekend.

Louis van Gaal has hinted that Manchester United’s full-backs were outperformed by Leicester City’s, leading to the clearest indication yet that Luke Shaw could come into the starting line-up.

United’s defensive deficiencies were exposed by the Foxes in their unlikely 5-3 success and the Red Devil’s boss has identified one key area where the game was lost for his side.

“When you say their full-backs made more than our full-backs, that is the game,” Van Gaal said.

Leicester’s full-back combination of Ritchie De Laet, a former United trainee, and Paul Koncheskey were non-stop in their energy, providing forward momentum and defensive solidarity to their team.

It meant that Leicester were able to thwart United’s attacking threat and clearly highlighted the problems they are suffering with defensively.

Marcos Rojo and Rafael were utilised at full-back by van Gaal, but both struggled to cope.

Indeed, it was Rafael’s error which proved to be the turning point in the match. Although the Brazilian will point towards some dodgy refereeing in not handing him a free-kick when he was barged off the ball by Jamie Vardy, he should never have retaliated in the box.

It was these actions which caused the spot kick, which provided Leicester the momentum to complete the comeback.

At the time of Rafael’s mistake United were seemingly on their way to cruising to success with a 3-1 lead, but David Nugent tucked away the penalty and from there on in it was all Leicester.

It was a worrying performance from United who seemed to put to rest many of the concerns about them with a 4-0 win against QPR the previous week.

However, this defeat has only led to further questions being asked, with Louis van Gaal’s policy of signing expensive attackers looking rather short-sighted now.

It also may mean that Shaw, who was bought for £30 million from Southampton during the transfer window, could finally make his debut.

There could be no question that his energy would have been a outlet that could have been valuable at the King Power Stadium and if Van Gaal is looking to improve in the full-back area then he becomes a viable option.