Luke Shaw short on time at Manchester United, EFL Cup not interesting Swansea and curious case of Jesse Lingard

Two second-string sides battled it out for a place in the fifth round

Jesse Lingard was the hero with two goals on the night (Getty)

Jesse Lingard scored once in either half to get Manchester United back to winning ways against Swansea City after Saturday’s shock defeat to Huddersfield in the Premier League.

The Englishman’s brace, his first for United, meant that Jose Mourinho’s side head into the fifth round of the EFL Cup as they look to defend their trophy.

After his dreadful performance on the weekend, Victor Lindelof completed a full 90 minutes and managed to keep a much-needed, confidence-boosting clean sheet.

Here’s five things we learned from the fourth-round EFL Cup match at the Liberty Stadium…

Shaw is on borrowed time

Despite his £30m price tag and Manchester United not having a stand-out, consistent choice at left-back, Shaw couldn’t even start an EFL Cup fourth-round game away to Swansea on the back of a terrible display full of team and individual errors against Huddersfield of all teams (no offence intended). In fact, he hasn’t started a competitive first-team game for more than six months.

(Getty (Getty)

Mourinho clearly does not fancy him, whether it’s because of the extortionate wage demands that saw Chelsea pull out of signing him in 2014 or that he genuinely thinks Shaw doesn’t have a footballing brain as he claimed last season. Either way his United career look certain to come to a disappointing end by the summer. His pointless five-minute cameo at the end said it all.

United exile regretting it?

Andreas Pereira made the decision, much to Mourinho’s disgruntlement – publicly anyway – to go on a second loan move in two seasons to La Liga and Valencia with the promise of more playing time rather than stay and fight for a place in the United first team. Given the plethora of No. 10s at the club in Juan Mata, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Paul Pogba and Marouane Fellaini (sort of) it seemed like the best developmental decision.

(Getty (Getty)

However, the absolute creative dearth that those playmakers who are actually fit at the moment have served up, Pereira’s promising pre-season could well have seen him involved. He need only look at Scott McTominay, who started against Swansea and also came off the bench against Benfica. Although given his performances in Spain and the current mood at Old Trafford, perhaps he is relieved to not be there.

Rashford stands out

Fresh from being voted the third best teenager in the Europe this week, Marcus Rashford, in one deft touch, showed exactly why he garnered so many votes. As under-fire Ander Herrera fizzed in a sharp pass to the Englishman’s feet, he expertly flicked the ball around the defender tightly behind him into the path of Lingard, who finished without any problems.

(Getty (Getty)

But it was not just that touch – his pace, energy and ever-improving crossing ability shows that he is becoming the perfect wide forward. He will surely be United’s most-used forward of the season in that position as at the moment, in the absence of Pogba, he is the only connection between midfield and attack.

Curious case of Lingard

At times he is utter sublime, and at times he looks like he belongs nowhere near a Manchester United first-team squad, but on Tuesday night he was certainly the former. His excellent run and finish after latching onto Rashford’s flick showed a sense of coolness and poise which he doesn’t often exhibit. However, he second was a thing of complete beauty.

(Getty (Getty)

He arrived right on cue for Matteo Darmian’s cross and sent it flying into the corner from around 15 yards out. He’s not quite a playmaker but he is a good deep-lying forward runner and it was that running which ultimately proved the difference.

Swansea have bigger fish to fry

Just who is the EFL Cup actually for? Manchester United’s line-up was littered with players on the fringes of the first team while Swansea made eight changes themselves. United, as is always the case with the bigger teams, rotate until they somehow stumble through to the semi-finals when there is a realistic chance of a trophy, but now even the smaller sides in the Premier League don’t value it.

Swansea want to save their players for a survival fight in the Premier League rather than risk them with the outside shot of a trip to Wembley and possibly, should they win, a season of European football the following year which would make it even more difficult to beat the drop given they would have to stretch the squad even more.