Juan Mata Predicted Luke Shaw's Future With Motivational Message When He Was At His Lowest

Juan Mata predicted Manchester United teammate Luke Shaw's future with an incredible motivational message in 2019.

Shaw has established himself as one of the world's top left backs over the last 12 months and is back in the England squad.

He played a key role in Tuesday's 2-0 win over Germany at Euro 2020 and the 25-year-old has turned his career around.

Back in 2019, Shaw was on the fringes of the United squad due to a frosty relationship with prior manager Jose Mourinho.

Interim boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had yet to be convinced by Shaw and his future was in the air - but Mata always knew.

He penned to Shaw: "To my friend Luke, you can be the best left back in the Premier League, believe it!"

Two years on, Shaw made it into the Premier League's Team of the Season after starring in a United side that finished second.

His issues with Mourinho still exist however and his former manager was critical of his performance against the Czech Republic last Monday.

The soon-to-be Roma manager described Shaw's set-piece delivery as "very poor" and "dramatically bad".

Shaw has had enough and said per The Guardian: "I don't really understand it, to be honest.

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"I don't know why he is still going on and wanting to point at me. I don't feel like the set-pieces were as bad as he was saying.

"I might have done one in the second half, a corner, that didn't get over the first man. But that was one out of three. The other two or three, I don't think, were as 'dramatically bad' as he says.

"Look, he has got to do his job. He has got his opinion. I am used to him saying negative stuff about me now, so I just pass it by. I leave it be, I ignore it.

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"I just focus on what the coaching staff say here, what Gareth says and that's that, really.

"His voice is obviously very big. He likes to talk a lot about me, as everyone has seen recently. But his voice is his own. He can say what he wants.

"I will focus on myself. I take set-pieces at United, so it wasn't as if it was something I wasn't ready for."

Topics: Juan Mata, Football, Manchester United, England, Luke Shaw

Daniel Marland

Daniel is a journalist for SPORTbible and he has previous experience with Manchester United. He has spoken to some of the biggest names in sport including Rio Ferdinand, Peter Crouch, WWE COO Triple H and WWE legend The Undertaker. May or may not do a decent impression of Jamie Carragher.

@DanMarland_