Luke Shaw has apologised to Manchester United fans for sounding like a broken record but he hopes the supporters will understand as the team search for a spark again.
The Reds were held to a 0-0 Champions League draw by Valencia as the European home campaign kicked off at Old Trafford. After winning the opening Group H match last month 3-0 against Young Boys of Bern in Switzerland, Jose Mourinho’s men were frustrated by the La Liga side in front of the home fans.
United haven’t won at the Theatre of Dreams since the opening day of the season against Leicester City in the Premier League and have since lost against Spurs and drawn with Wolves, as well as being knocked out on penalties by Derby County in the Carabao Cup.
The situation on home soil was exacerbated by last weekend’s 3-1 away defeat by West Ham in London and Shaw believes a victory in Manchester this Saturday teatime against Newcastle is paramount ahead of an international break.
“The last few games haven’t been good enough. We need that break and we need that break with a win,” said Shaw.
“It’s always a better feeling going into an international break with a win, because if you go in without a win, it’s a long time before our next game when you can put things right. It’s frustrating if we don’t, but I’m sure we’ll bounce back.
“We keep saying that after every game and I’m sure it’s hard for the fans to take, but you don’t know what else you can say.
”We need to win on Saturday and we have to win and we have to do it for ourselves, for the team, for the staff and most importantly for the fans.
“They’ve had a hard couple of weeks, I’m sure, and we have too, as players. We’ll do our best to make it right on the weekend.“
The draw with Valencia means United are second in Group H behind Juventus who have started with two wins from two, and Shaw is disappointed the Reds haven’t joined the Italians on six points.
The left back, however, has pinpointed the visit of Juve on October 23 as a match that could help revive United.
“It’s disappointing because it’s two points dropped at home where we should be getting three points,” said Luke.
”It’s hard. If you look at the second half I think we had a spell of 15, 20 minutes where I felt we were on top, putting pressure on their keeper and defenders, creating chances, moving the ball better. We just didn’t get that bit of luck where sometimes you need it to drop in front of a player to finish.
“I think sometimes the tempo was too slow for what we’re about. We need to be moving the ball quicker and getting between the lines, giving it out wide to the dangerous players we have and creating more chances but it wasn’t meant to be.
”We did have chances but we’re there again where we didn’t take them and it’s hard to take. We should be winning these games but we haven’t won here for a while. We need to fix that on Saturday with a win against Newcastle. We have to win on Saturday.
“Last weekend (against West Ham) was bad but this time there was more hunger. It just wasn’t meant to be. It’s very disappointing.
“Like I said, in the Champions League you need to be picking up maximum points. Four points is okay I guess but we should have six.
”We look at the next game, we’ve got Juventus coming here and it’s another very tough game. It’s what the Champions League is about, you want to be playing against the best teams. I think that’s maybe what we need, we need a big team to come here and for us to pick ourselves up again and show why we’re Man United.“