‘He’s a really good lad and he deserves it, so I just want to say, for Phil Jones, keep going.’
Luke Shaw was keen to praise Phil Jones after the defender returned to the Manchester United starting line-up for the first time in over two years.
Man United suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat at home to Wolves on Monday night, with João Moutinho stroking his shot past David de Gea in the 82nd minute to secure a memorable victory at Old Trafford.
With a number of centre-backs out injured – including club captain Harry Maguire – interim boss Ralf Rangnick opted to start Jones, who had impressed United’s new boss in training.
Luke Shaw defends Phil Jones.
The 29-year-old enjoyed a decent return to first-team football against Wolves, and fellow defender Shaw was quick to praise him for overcoming criticism in recent years.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, the England left-back said: “Phil Jones should be proud of himself, he’s been criticised for a number of years, constantly, people always getting at him but he’s stuck by it, he’s so professional, trained so hard and he got his chance tonight, and I think he was phenomenal.
“He needs a lot of respect for that tonight because he was out for over a year and this is really his first big game back and he was exceptional, I’m very happy for him for what he’s been through.
“He’s a really good lad and he deserves it, so I just want to say, for Phil Jones, keep going.”
🗣 "He was phenomenal, he needs a lot of respect for that tonight."
Luke Shaw praises his teammate Phil Jones for his comeback in the Manchester United squad pic.twitter.com/Z9VsHomWh8
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) January 3, 2022
Shaw was extremely critical of United’s performance against Bruno Lage’s side, questioning the togetherness of the Red Devils squad.
He added: “Us players we’ve been here for a long time, we’ve played at home, we know what it’s like when we have the intensity and you can feel the motivation is there. But I think tonight we didn’t show that we were all there together, we felt like we were struggling.”
Man United currently sit in seventh position in the Premier League table, 22 points off league-leaders Manchester City.
