I missed the gasme at Swansea, and would like to have a decent appraisal of Shaw's performance. Read the one liner's on the bratings thread, but would like to know how people thought he coped. What was he like on the ball? Did he go passed their full back? How was his crossing? Did he cope with their pace? etc.
I didn't go on Saturday, so can't comment. Hopefully he'll play this Saturday so I can get a good look at him. I did like the look of him when he played a few minutes against West Brom.
What was he like on the ball? Didn't really spend much time on the ball or run with it, tended to offload ASAP, but his passing was solid. Did he go passed their full back? He let Lallana do that How was his crossing? Didn't really get far enough forwards to warrant a cross as far as I can remember Did he cope with their pace? There won't be many Wingers who can outpace him, he's real fast, he cut out 1 attack when it looked like their Winger was well in the clear and had a good head start, he closed the gap with ease. etc. I think he was briefed to not attack too much, but to stop their players getting in behind him on the Left, which he generally accomplished. Only once can I remember their player getting past him on the goal line just inside the box, their was a bit of a nervy moment when it looked like he might foul the opposition player, but then he put it out for a corner. All in all, for a 17yr old playing his 1st PL game I was very impressed. NA also commented favourably in the post-match interview.
He was better than Fox has been all season, although I think we did miss Fox's delivery. Still, in my mind, Shaw is now our best and 1st choice LB, as long as he keeps those performances up. Have to do a lot wrong to be worse than Fox though
Attacking he was certainly unspectacular and opted for short passes rather than charges down the line, which is fine for a 17 year old making his debut, don't think he overlapped once, which unfortunately makes it hard to answer most of your questions. Was very impressive defensively though, didn't seem to be getting burned by pace at all. Very solid performance, as I've said elsewhere, his performance was probably better than any I've seen from Fox this season.
He had to mark Pablo Hernandez for the majority of the game but did come up against Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer, he coped very well against them all. Barely got forward which meant we weren't exposed at the back like we have a couple of times this season. Keep him in the team for QPR!
Thnaks guys. I was disappointed to miss game, and all my son said was "yeah he was good". I saw him at Leeds for the last few minutes and he did ok then too, so hopefully one problem potentially resolved.... now do we have a strapping, strong young CB in the academy, ready to step up..... ?
I think he can play a variety of positions including RB, CB and a defence minded midfielder. I think we bought him as a RB but his stature makes him seem more of a CB. We'll see soon enough.
What was he like on the ball?- Pretty stylish and sexy. Did he go passed their full back?- rarely How was his crossing?- Can't remember him crossing, but he did take a few corners and did an ok job. Did he cope with their pace?- Yes, struggled in the first 5-10 minutes, but then got the hang of it and didn't leave the left flank so open like Foxy does.
He's pretty tall (6ft 2 I think), so can play centre back. I think Mugabi might have a future as well, but he's probably a couple of years off.
The best thing to say about Shaw was that you were never aware that a kid was playing left back...and I mean that as a compliment. He isn't like Clyne who goes forward a lot, but was calm and passed the ball well. He has real pace...I saw him get one ball that I thought he was clearly second favourite for. Has a real future and I hope to see a lot more of him.
Yeah Stephens sees himself as a centre-half these days apparently. He's obviously not quite there yet though or he'd almost certainly have been on the bench at some point.
I was hugely impressed by Shaw. Best compliment I heard for him: "He doesn't even look like a kid". Very solid, disciplined display.
If he's got absolutely no chance of playing CB with our current defenders then it may be time to give up on him
I'll second that - that was one of the best moments of the match for me; their guy looked uncatchable then Shaw just plain overhauled him very, very quickly indeed. Vin
I watched Shaw quite a lot during the game. What struck me was the lack of energy, and movement in his area of the pitch. Nothing happened. Time stood still. When Fox plays in that position there is movement and bodies running to and fro. I see this as a good thing though. We don't want bodies running to and fro in the left of our defence. We want the ball away from that area. This might help us not concede so many goals. So I think Shaw played really well in nullifying his area of the pitch. He tracked back, marked his man and was aware of those around him. I would play him ahead of Fox next game too, though sub him at like 75 mins.
