It’s hard to think of another Manchester United player who has endured the type of roller coaster that Luke Shaw has experienced at Old Trafford. It seems like every time he settles in, and locks down the left back position, disaster strikes. He’s been extremely injury plagued and even had his commitment to the side and fitness/training publicly called into question.

Since moving over from Southampton in 2014, for a then record transfer fee for a teenager (£30 million), he’s made only 109 appearances in a total of five years. Now, after just being named the club’s player of the year last season, he’s fallen behind youngster Brandon Williams on the depth chart. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has informed the 24-year-old of his situation.

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While the product on the pitch may not be what it once was during the Sir Alex Ferguson era, the Manchester United brand is as strong as ever; and then some. The post-Fergie Red Devils are still a massive draw, as evidenced by the off-the-charts demand for their Europa League group stage clash at FC Astana tonight.

Fans in Kazakhstan (“great success” *Borat voice*) badly want to see the team from Old Trafford tomorrow night, even if the side they’ll be sending is comprised of mostly youngsters and inexperienced players.

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As Manchester United head to Kazakhstan to take on FC Astana in UEFA Europa League group stage action on Thursday night, their business has pretty much been taken care of at this point in the competition. It’s inevitable that they’ll get through to the knockout round, so United will thus give a lot of their kids a hard look in this one.

You have 14 teenagers in the 18-man traveling squad, and there is a possibility that up to 10 players could make their senior team debuts in this match. The traveling party includes a phenomenal and uplifting story in 19-year-old Max Taylor, who just a year ago was still undergoing chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer.

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For some reason, Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had Phil Jones in his starting XI today, despite his also employing his first choice central defense pairing. OGS played a formation with five defenders in it today in the 3-3 draw at Sheffield United, and that meant we got to see Phil Jones.

And when we see Jones, we see him make mistakes, and when those mistakes are made it’s in spectacular fashion. Phil Jones spent a lot of time on the ground and/or lobbying the officials for a foul and he was key to the Blades getting out to a 2-0 lead. United roared back to take the lead, 3-2, but ended up yielding an equalizer in extra time.

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Mauricio Pochettino, who has been heavily linked with a move to Manchester United whenever the gig at Old Trafford has been open in recent years, is now a free agent again. Sacked by Tottenham Hotspur on Tuesday and replaced by Jose Mourinho on Wednesday, Pochettino could get just about any open job he wants right now.

He’s already been heavily linked with Bayern Munich, but the United community cannot help but speculate on the possibility of Poch supplanting Ole Gunnar Solsksjaer. It doesn’t appear that Solskjaer’s job is an any danger, and he has insisted that Argentine’s newly found availability doesn’t affect the security of his job.

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There is probably no greater pleasant surprise in the Premier League this season than Sheffield United. Manager  Chris Wilder has his newly-promoted side sitting fifth place right now, with one more point on the season than the giant club coming to visit them.

If the Blades win on Sunday, they will be no worse than five points off the pace of the top four. With a defeat of Arsenal and draws against Chelsea and Tottenham on their resume already, when will we stop calling these wins “upsets?” I mean at some point, we need to realize that Sheffield United is indeed legit. 

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The January window will get here before you know it, so let’s take a spin through the latest Manchester United transfer rumors. Executive Vice President Ed Woodward gave a conference call to United investors yesterday and of course the upcoming transfer window was discussed. He made some vague, corporatespeak style comments about the window and a lot of media have since tried to read in between the lines of what he said.

Here’s what we do know, United have been and will continue being linked to a ton of players this window. A TON.

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When Manchester United heads to Sheffield United on Sunday, it’s actually the hosts, not the visitors who reside higher up in the Premier League table. Sheffield are currently fifth, while United are seventh as we approach what will be the 94th meeting between the two sides.

The Red Devils have 44 wins in the series to the Blades 34, to go along with 15 draws. United are on a 7 game win streak in this rivalry, with the most recent meeting coming in 2016. That match was in the FA Cup tournament, and it resulted in a 1-0 win by the hosts at Old Trafford. So let’s take a look at the lineup that manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer might go with for this one.

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