Luke Shaw’s struggle to return to form continued in 3-0 loss to Bournemouth | OneFootball

Manchester United were thrashed 3-0 by Bournemouth in front of a furious Old Trafford crowd on Saturday afternoon in a result that summed up the team’s inconsistent season to date.

The euphoria of Man United’s thrilling 2-1 midweek win over Chelsea was stamped out as the underdogs were effective at exploiting the weaknesses in the hosts’ defence and making the most of their fewer scoring opportunities.

While United seemed to start the match in the driving seat, it soon became apparent just how disorganised their defence truly was as Dominic Solanke put the visitors in front after just four minutes.

This was just one moment where Luke Shaw and the rest of the backline switched off, allowing Bournemouth to score with a sporadic counter-attack.

When Philip Billing doubled the visitors’ lead in the second half, it was Shaw who was directly responsible for allowing the Bournemouth winger to double their lead.

Shaw was unable to effectively mark Billing, allowing him to make use of his space and utilise his height advantage to rise and header the ball into the back of the net.

In the 73rd minute, it was Shaw who was yet again at the heart of the errors that led to a Bournemouth goal.

While he was heavily marking Solanke as Marcus Tavernier lined up to take a corner kick, by the time the cross came in, Solanke backtracked, breaking free of his marker and heading the ball into the back of the net with ease.

Although Shaw won three of his five aerial duels on the night, the duels he lost cost United on the scoreboard.

He was ineffective in ground duels, losing all four of the contests he was involved in.

While Shaw made a team-leading five clearances, he made a solitary interception and was dribbled past twice, yet again showing his ineffectiveness at centre-back, which is not his primary position.

A silver lining for the England left-back was his decent passing ability, completing 78 of 89 attempts to attain an 88% passing accuracy – the most of every player from both teams.

Still, the 28 year old’s struggles at the back persist and he is struggling to find his form after returning to the fold following a prolonged injury absence.

Erik ten Hag will be hoping that Shaw will be able to rediscover his finesse relatively fast as United find themselves in the thick of an intense December schedule.

(Stats via Sofascore)