Luke Shaw launched a scathing criticism of former Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho and his “strange” personal agenda, with the Red Devils and England full-back insisting “clearly I’m in his head”.
Mourinho managed Shaw at United from 2016 until he was sacked in 2018 and the Portuguese boss was often critical of the England international publicly in Manchester.
Shaw has since flourished under the guidance of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at United, but Mourinho – now in charge of Serie A side Roma following his Tottenham sacking – took aim at the Englishman’s poor corner-taking for England at Euro 2020.
After England’s win over the Czech Republic, Mourinho told talkSPORT: “The negative thing I would say is once more they were very poor on attacking corners.
“The service was dramatically bad. They have so many good players to attack corners. The crosses are not passing the first man.
“Luke Shaw, in my opinion, very good tonight but very poor on the corner. [Kalvin] Phillips, the same. England has great power at this level and going to knockouts, one corner can decide a game.”
Responding to Mourinho’s latest barb, Shaw – back in the national team following his return to form at club level – said: “I don’t understand it. 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. I’m used to him saying negative stuff about me, so I just pass it by.
“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.”
Shaw – gearing up for the Euro 2020 last-16 showdown against Germany – added: “He likes some players, he doesn’t like others. I fell into the category where he didn’t like me.