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'I'm always pulling my hair out watching Luke Shaw' | Kevin Doyle on the MUFC defence

Kevin Doyle joined the Football Show on Wednesday's Off The Ball where he tore into the Mancheste...



Soccer

'I'm always pulling my hair out watching Luke Shaw' | Kevin Doyle on the MUFC defence

Kevin Doyle joined the Football Show on Wednesday's Off The Ball where he tore into the Manchester United defence, with Luke Shaw coming in for particular criticism.

Manchester United had just been beaten 2-0 by rivals Manchester City in the Carabao Cup when Doyle let loose.

"To me it looks like a team that never even train together, they just go out an do five-a-side. It's great when they can go up the other end and score.

"They don't look like they work on any sort of shape [in defence] or organisation. They are good players, Harry Maguire gets a lot of stick but he was signed as a top player and everyone was pretty happy fan-wise when he came in.

"Any of those back four have not done what was expected of them when they came in."

'Pulling my hair out'

The most concern Doyle has for individuals in the United defence is in both full back positions, but really it's one, Luke Shaw.

"I'm always pulling my hair out watching Luke Shaw in particular. I don't think he looks fit, first of all," says Doyle who accused Shaw of mistakenly 'over-covering.'

"For the Aston Villa goal last week, nobody mentioned it in commentary but I was tearing my hair out looking at it.

"He did a job he didn't need to do. He left his man, the Aston Villa goal scorer. He was doing everything right, tracking his man.

"Then at the last second he has a brain fart and went to try do Harry Maguire's job. He came straight in across and not only did he not do the job, and put the ball out like he tried to do, he turned his arse to it.

"If he had just stood in his position and maintained his shape the ball would have dropped to him. He was covered, he was in a good position until that last second.

"You see that at the back post, the amount of times and maybe I'm just picking on him but the amount of times you see him getting caught out of position looking over his shoulder not being aware of the person he is marking.

"Shaw need to do his job first of all, don't worry about Harry Maguire or whoever else. In that [Villa] game in particular it really stood out to me."

Luke Shaw needs to lose weight

Aside from the mistakes on the pitch, Doyle says Shaw must be defying science as he appears to be somewhat out of shape.

"He just hasn't done it. His fitness too, I don't know how at Man United who have the best sports scientists in the world, he must be passing all of the tests to keep playing.

"Any person watching from the sidelines would say he needs to lose a bit of weight, needs to be fitter and stronger.

"He seems to come off with cramp or tight muscles a lot of the time getting little niggles which is a sign of someone not in proper shape."

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Read more about

Carabao Cup Harry Maguire Luke Shaw Manchester Derby Manchester United Ole Gunnar Solskjaer