Bruno Fernandes is convinced the signing of Alex Telles is the key component behind Luke Shaw's dramatic improvement at Manchester United after the left-back won the club's Player of the Month award.
It was not so long ago that Shaw's United career appeared to be petering out to an underwhelming conclusion, particularly during Jose Mourinho's ill-fated reign.
In two-and-a-half years playing for the Portuguese coach, Shaw only made 33 Premier League appearances. While he did have injury and fitness problems, the manager's attitude seemingly did little to endear himself to the player.
Mourinho criticised Shaw publicly on several occasions, yet the left-back kept his head down and – to the surprise of very few – ultimately outlasted the 'Special One', kicking on brilliantly under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
His five assists this season is already a personal high for a Premier League season, having only managed seven in total in previous campaigns, but that's just the tip of the iceberg – Shaw's chance creation frequency of 2.44 per game is almost double his previous best of 1.3 in 2016-17, and that was from just 11 appearances.
The only defender to lay on goalscoring chances at a better rate than Shaw is Ryan Fredericks (2.45), though his marginally improved record comes from 13 fewer games than Shaw's 23.
Liverpool's Andrew Robertson has previously been held up as something of a standard-bearer for full-backs in the Premier League, yet Shaw's 31 key passes from open play is just one less than his 32 from four fewer outings. Joao Cancelo leads the way (36), though he does count set-piece deliveries as among his strong points – the United man does.
Statistically, this season is an outlier for Shaw in almost every regard and highlights just how much of a step forward he has taken, but Fernandes is convinced there has been one major catalyst for this resurgence.
Speaking to the United website ahead of Sunday's derby clash with Manchester City, Fernandes said: "[Shaw]'s been playing really, really well in the last few months. I think he started a little bit slow like everyone did because at the beginning of the season we didn't start good.
"I think the competition between Alex and Luke has given both of them the chances to be better and to improve. This is really important because you know if you are not performing well you will be out of the team.
"I think Luke started to perform well when he had that pressure from Alex. At the same time, Alex when he plays has played really well because he knows that Luke is on the bench.
"So, the pressure between them is good but the relationship between them is better, I have seen that in the stands. Alex is always pushing to help everyone and I remember when I came off against Real Sociedad it was Luke in the stands and I saw a lot of times Luke pushing to help Alex.
"This is what we're about. You can be fighting for the same place, but you are fighting for the same achievements, you know.
"This has to be like that in every position in the team, we have to understand that whoever is playing it's because the manager thinks he's better for the team in that moment and the most important thing is the team.
"I think everyone is happy for Luke to win this Player of the Month award and I'm happy too because he deserves it, and I hope he can continue this form until the end of the season because he knows Alex is there to take his position."
Sunday's trip to City will see Fernandes go up against some familiar faces in Ruben Dias, Bernardo Silva and Cancelo, all of whom are colleagues of his at international level with Portugal.
All three have enjoyed fine campaigns individually and, as a collective, have helped City embark on a club-record winning streak of 21 games across all competitions.
Avoiding defeat again on Sunday will mean City are unbeaten in 29 matches, another new club record, and Fernandes made no secret of wishing his compatriots were not doing so well as a team.
"I speak with them regularly, we have a good relationship, but the relationships stay out of the game. They know me and they know that on the pitch we are not friends anymore," he said with a grin.
"At the same time I enjoy seeing them play and every one of them is doing well individually and I'm happy for them. As a team I was hoping to see them do a little bit worse than they are doing, but individually I am happy for them because they are good people and they deserve to be in the positions they are and playing in the way they are playing."
Football rumours: Former Celtic winger Jota could reunite with Ange Postecoglou
Portuguese winger Jota is reportedly looking to reunite with his former Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham, the Sun reports. However Postecoglou is unsure if the club will make a move for the 24-year-old. Jota currently plays for Al-Ittihad in the Saudi Pro League.
The Daily Express reports Manchester United have joined the ever-growing race to sign Brentford striker Ivan Toney. Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham are also interested in the 27-year-old.
The Manchester Evening News says Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi has ruled out a mid-season move to Manchester United as he does not want to dampen his chances of being selected in England’s Euro 2024 squad.
Social media round-upPlayers to watchLucas Paqueta: Manchester City could reportedly lose interest in the West Ham midfielder if there is no resolution found over the gambling investigation into the midfielder, Football Transfers says.
Estevao Willian: Teamtalk reports the 16-year-old Brazilian is being chased by a plethora of clubs including Manchester City, Manchester United, Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund.
Dozens arrested following violence from Legia Warsaw fans at Villa Park
More than 30 people have been arrested following violence from Legia Warsaw fans prior to their Europa Conference League game against Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Missiles were thrown at police as the visiting fans were held in the coach park near the stadium, before they were due to enter for Thursday’s group game.
West Midlands Police said four officers were injured and although the game started on time, no Legia fans were allowed into the stadium ahead of kick-off.
The force said in a statement following the game that 39 people were arrested after the “disgusting and highly dangerous scenes”, with one of the injured police officers taken to hospital.
Two police horses and two police dogs were also hurt.
Chief Inspector Tim Robinson said: “This should have been a great evening of football which was enjoyed by fans from both clubs.
“Unfortunately, there were appalling scenes which saw away fans dangerously throw flares and other missiles at our officers.”
He said the “extreme violence” left police with no other choice but to prevent away fans entering the stadium, adding: “The safety of everyone is our priority, and clearly we had no other option.”
Villa and West Midlands Police both released statements before the game had finished, with the Premier League club revealing requests to the Polish club before the tie for help in preventing ticketless fans from travelling went unanswered.
Villa said: “Aston Villa Football Club can confirm that no away fans were allowed into Villa Park for this evening’s UEFA Europa Conference League fixture with Legia Warsaw on the advice of West Midlands Police following large-scale disorder outside the stadium caused by visiting supporters.
“The UK safety authorities, UEFA and Aston Villa, communicated on November 2 that the ticket allocation for away fans for this fixture would be reduced to 1,002 on the advice of safety authorities as a result of previous large-scale disorder caused by Legia fans last month at AZ Alkmaar.
“A number of Dutch police officers were injured during that disorder. As a consequence, UEFA banned Legia supporters from travelling to Mostar for their game against HSK Zrinjski.
“In spite of numerous requests for cooperation from Legia Warsaw concerning their travelling supporters, especially in the last two days, no assistance on the serious safety matter of away fans attending Villa Park was forthcoming from the visiting club.
“The club has repeatedly, including this morning, raised concerns in conjunction with UEFA and all the relevant authorities to Legia that ticketless away supporters were attempting to attend Villa Park.”
Villa said Legia fans “engaged in planned and systematic violent acts against West Midlands Police officers” about an hour before kick-off.
The club added: “Aston Villa strongly condemns the behaviour of those visiting supporters and would like to thank West Midlands Police for their professionalism in very difficult circumstances.”
In its own pre-game statement, the Polish side accused Villa of restricting access to their fans in a move it called “counterproductive and baseless”.
It said senior executives, including the club’s owner, made the decision to boycott the game in response to the move.
Legia coach Kosta Runjaic refused to be drawn on the disorder in the post-match press conference.
He said: “I think its a different topic, it’s not my business. I’ve been in a big focus to lead the team. We represented Polish football in a good way, all other things outside the stadium I don’t want to comment.
“We have great fans, they support us home and away. We can always count on them. So far since I’ve been at Legia I’ve had a good experience with our fans. I don’t know the content of it all happening.
“I don’t know the details, which is why it’s better I don’t speak too much about it. Unfortunately our fans weren’t in the stadium and the atmosphere would have been better.
“It’s not about the fans, it’s a pity but we can’t change it.”
Jurgen Klopp satisfied as Liverpool secure top spot with a game to spare
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp declared himself satisfied with the 4-0 victory over LASK which secured top spot in their Europa League group with a match to spare.
Two goals from Cody Gakpo and one apiece from Luis Diaz and Mohamed Salah, his 199th for the club, saw them coast past the Austrians at Anfield.
Toulouse’s draw with Union Saint-Gilloise meant Klopp’s side cannot be caught at the top and crucially that means avoiding the play-off round when the competition restarts in February.
“Two top results for us tonight in the group,” said Klopp.
“It was clear, with the defeat at Toulouse (last time out) we made it a bit more tricky but because of our result and their result we are now top of the table and that will not change.
“That’s good, very important in the busy schedule we have from now on.
“A lot of positives in the game, a lot of good football. The thing I didn’t like too much, and told the boys at half-time, (was) this game should have been put to bed already at half-time.
“You cannot play better, you cannot set it up better, (but) you can finish it better obviously – but we didn’t.
“Caoimhin (Kelleher) worked for his clean sheet, which he desperately wanted, and that’s good.
“We scored a fourth goal in the last minute or whatever, so result top, performance really good (and) nobody got injured. All good.”
Liverpool are favourites for the Europa League but having put themselves firmly in the title race the demands on Klopp’s side are likely to be significant when the competition resumes.
However, the Reds boss refused to relegate Europe to a second-tier ambition.
“Unfortunately, my career is not like this where I can choose, to be honest,” he added.
“I have to take what I get. When we play the competition it’s the most important competition on the planet. Easy as that.
“But now we play Premier League on Sunday (at home to Fulham) and so that is then the most important competition, definitely.
“We want to go as far as somehow possible (in the Europa League).”
Gakpo said the squad were determined to compete in all competitions they were in.
“We have to keep going because we have big goals for the season. That’s it,” he told TNT Sports.
“We just have to keep going and win as much as possible. We have a lot of quality in the group and I think with this quality we can win a lot of games.”
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