Luke Shaw’s centre-back form for Man Utd proves Gary Neville was right the first time as ex-defender pokes fun

Gary Neville may have poked fun at Luke Shaw over his outings at centre-back, but the stats speak for themselves.

It proved to be a disappointing night for Manchester United on Thursday, with Erik ten Hag’s men losing 1-0 away to Brighton thanks to a stoppage time penalty. Shaw was the villain after conceding the spot-kick with a handball late in the game, leaving his hand raised for the delivery of a corner.

Shaw has been playing at centre-back - and not his usual left-back position - for a number of weeks now, and it has been going well, with United generally in good form.

It’s for that reason Neville tweeted on Thursday night with the score still at 0-0, saying: “How well is Luke Shaw doing at Centre Back.” Acknowledging that Shaw then went on to concede a penalty, he quote retweeted his own tweet and said along with a laughing emoji: “Bloody hell!”

But the stats tell us Neville was right in the first instance about Shaw, who has played centre-back a number of times in his United career. In fact, the England international has played in the position 8 times in all, according to Transfermarkt. During those 18 appearances, Shaw has played a part in eight clean sheets.

He has also managed to help United win 11 of the 18 games, drawing three and losing just four. Those are impressive statistics for a player playing out of position, and it backs up Ten Hag’s decision to play Shaw at centre-back.

Asked about the move when Shaw played there back in February, Ten Hag explained: “Yeah, he [Shaw] is [impressive], but especially I think for this game, like against City, so in certain roles, he fits very good at centre back because it allows the full-back to get high and he can defend very good in the left wide area.

“That as well [left-footed player], you get better angles in your possession game and we want to dictate in and out of possession. In possession, you have better build-up.”