Jose Mourinho FINALLY gives Luke Shaw some credit, as he hails England left back’s ‘amazing tournament’ at Euro 2020… and DENIES that he ‘doesn’t like him’!
Jose Mourinho has finally addressed the issue of whether or not he likes his former Manchester United full-back Luke Shaw and made the uncharacteristic move of actually praising the 26-year-old.
Mourinho had a history of publicly criticising Shaw during his time as United manager and getting tangled in messy spats with the defender.
During the last 16 round of Euro 2020 Shaw had even addressed previous criticisms from Mourinho and insisted that he still had the utmost respect for the Portuguese boss, but admitted: ‘He likes some, he doesn’t like others and I fell into the category where he didn’t like me.’
Luke Shaw has finally been praised by Jose Mourinho for his Euro 2020 England performances
The defender has a chequered past with Mourinho and was regularly targeted by him
Now, after England concluded their European championships with a penalty shootout defeat to Italy, Mourinho has set the record straight regarding himself and the defender.
He told TalkSport: ‘People think I don’t like Luke Shaw.
‘I have to say: amazing tournament, fantastic final, no defensive mistakes.
Mourinho (L) gave his damning verdict of Bukayo Saka (R) taking the decisive pen on TalkSport
‘Very solid. On top of that he improve and improve and improve.’
Mourinho then went on to suggest that his words would not necessarily have much effect on the player right now, but seemed to imply that the full-back has turned a corner in his career.
Mourinho added: ‘It doesn’t mean much, but for him for his career, for the way he grew up very good. Very good, Luke Shaw.’
Mourinho however could not resist bringing Shaw up when discussing England’s failure to win the tournament, and suggested he should have been among the big names to stand up and be counted in the dying moments of the tie, when Bukayo Saka was left to take the decisive penalty.
England boss Gareth Southgate took full responsibility for choosing the side’s penalty takers
He said: ‘In this situation, where was Raheem Sterling? Where was John Stones?
‘Where was Luke Shaw? Why didn’t Jordan Henderson or Kyle Walker stay on the pitch?
‘I think it’s too much for a kid to have everything on his shoulders in this moment, but I don’t know, I have to ask that question to Gareth because many times what happens is that players who should be there are not there, players who should be there, they run away from the responsibility.
‘And because I feel Gareth is such an honest guy and is so protective of his players, I don’t believe Gareth would ever say if “Player A or Player B” ran away or hid or said they were not ready to take one.’
