Man United are winless in six in the Premier League and have won six league games out of 24 under Ruben Amorim.
Shaw played 45 minutes against Brentford
Manchester United coach Ruben Amorim clarified Luke Shaw’s half-time substitution against Brentford was in response to Matthijs de Ligt’s first-half withdrawal.
De Ligt was forced off in the 35th minute in his first Premier League start in a month, having sustained an apparent knee injury seconds before Brentford went 2-1 ahead.
Shaw, who captained United, made way for Leny Yoro at the interval along with Patrick Dorgu, who was replaced by Amad. Dorgu started in the 3-0 Europa League semi-final first leg victory at Athletic Bilbao on Thursday and was only expected to play a half at Brentford.
United are already without centre halves Lisandro Martinez and Ayden Heaven for the semi-final second leg against Athletic and De Ligt could be unavailable again.
Amorim said he had “no idea” if De Ligt would recover for the return leg on Thursday. “With Mattha, we don’t know what will happen on Thursday. If we don’t have Luke Shaw available, we can have a problem and then we don’t have enough defenders for the game.
“Is Shaw injured? No, no, no. What I am saying is we have to protect some players at half-time thinking about Thursday, was just that, not thinking about the game.”
Amorim could be seen shaking his head after Brentford played on with De Ligt seeking medical treatment. Kevin Schade scored from Christian Norgaard’s cross and referee Anthony Taylor was not obliged to halt play as De Ligt did not suffer a head injury.
“I will not comment on that,” Amorim said of the incident. “The important thing is to have Mattha, not thinking about Thursday. Not a big issue, is the only thing I ask is not to have him available for this game or whatever is going to happen in the future.
“I just don’t want a big issue because we had a problem with Licha. With Mattha, I don’t know. I’m just talking, I have no idea. He could be training in three days, I don’t know.”
United went 1-0 up at Brentford through Mason Mount’s second goal for the club in the 14th minute yet Brentford went 4-1 up before late goals from Alejandro Garnacho and Amad threatened another United comeback.
The result marked United’s 16th league loss of the season, the first time they have lost that many since 1989-90. United are winless in six league games and have won six out of 24 overall under Amorim.
“I think it’s a little bit a reflection of our season,” Amorim added of the result. “We start quite well, controlling the game, not creating big chances, but controlling the pace of the game.
“We suffer a lot with throw-ins and set pieces but we already knew our team would struggle against this team, we didn’t have the height necessary for this kind of game. They score twice in these kind of moments, even with Mattha on the floor.
“And in the second half, I felt we were near the draw and then we suffer a goal and like some other times we disconnect and then another goal three or five minutes later. We pushed forward and tried to score, we scored twice but didn’t have time to do better.”