Rio Ferdinand has encouraged Manchester United to find an ‘understudy’ rather than a replacement for Luke Shaw before the summer transfer deadline.
Shaw and the rest of Michael Carrick’s squad came in for heavy criticism after falling to a 2-0 defeat to newly promoted Hull City in their Premier League opener last weekend.
The 31-year-old left-back also endured a difficult start against Ipswich as he was beaten all ends up by Abdul Fatawu on the wing for Leif Davis’ strike in the 29th minute on Sunday afternoon.
However, Bruno Fernandes inspired a spirited fightback with a stunning hat-trick to ensure the Red Devils came away from Old Trafford with a 5-2 victory – the club’s first win of the campaign.
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Carrick decided to take Shaw off for Noussair Mazraoui with 17 minutes remaining of normal time, one of five changes made by the United head coach in a breathless second half at the Theatre of Dreams.
After the game, Rio Ferdinand launched an impassioned defence of Shaw on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel, claiming the England full-back had been one of United’s most ‘consistent’ performances over the last 12 months.
According to Ferdinand, United should be looking for left-back to ‘bed in over time’ rather than someone to force Shaw – the club’s longest serving player – from the side.
The legendary ex-United and England defender said: ‘In a couple of my WhatsApp chats, some United fans were saying, “Luke Shaw, get rid!”… Luke Shaw, over the last year, has been one of our most consistent performers and you’re sitting there saying, “He should be there”, or, “He should be somewhere else”… no!
‘Go and get a left-back that we want to actually bed in over time to be a replacement for someone like Luke Shaw.
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‘You think you’re going to go in the market and find someone? It’s like £60m we’d have to pay. We ain’t got that!
‘We haven’t got the budget after paying the amount of money that we have to reinforce the midfield.’
Ferdinand argued that one ‘below-par’ game was not enough for fans to start calling for Shaw’s head.
He added: Listen, Luke Shaw has had better games, yes, but is he one where we’re looking to improve that area immediately? No, no. We need back-up in that area now with the thought of long-term.
