Former Man United stalwart offers advice to under-fire Man United defender if he wants to get back into the team

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It was interesting to see Luke Shaw coming out in the press to demand new signings during the transfer window, because the signing of Alex Telles will probably push him into a back-up role.

It’s early days for the Brazilian but you can see that he’s got real quality on the ball and he just looks more assured as a player, so Shaw will need to up his game massively to get back into the team.

It can be mentally tough to adapt when someone comes in to replace you and Shaw will need to be patient if Telles establishes himself, so it was interesting to see that former Old Trafford stalwart Mikael Silvestre had some advice for the English full back.

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Silvestre played over 360 times for the club but he often found himself in and out of the side so he has experience in this situation, and he clearly thinks Shaw needs to improve defensively.

His comments were picked up by The Metro, and it does make sense when he advises Shaw to improve his understanding with Harry Maguire and to improve his defensive positioning.

The thumping at home to Spurs was the perfect example where Shaw was all over the place and often left two or three men spare in the box, so any defence is going to look dreadful in that case.

Maguire gets a lot of stick and it’s deserved in many cases, but he’s always going to look exposed if he’s having to worry about his own job and trying to figure out what Shaw might do next.

Telles is clearly more of a threat going forward so Shaw needs to present himself as a more stable defensive option if he wants to give Solskjaer an alternative, but his recent performances suggest he’s not capable.

More Stories Alex Telles Luke Shaw Mikael Silvestre