Luke Shaw to spearhead Jose Mourinho pursuit of Man United glory

Manchester United's attack is as promising as it has looked for the last couple of years, and much of that expectation is due to their full-backs.

Antonio Valencia looked impressive in Saturday's 5-2 win over Galatasaray, ending up with three assists, and on the other flank Luke Shaw continued his return to match fitness.

Valencia's best attributes are well-known. He has, at his most confident, fine crossing ability, and always brings a tremendous work ethic to each game -- yet the ceiling of Shaw's potential is nowhere in sight. Shaw, in his own way, carries as much expectation as Anthony Martial, and possibly the same amount of talent.

Still only 21, he was the world's most expensive teenager when United signed him for £30 million in 2014, until Martial arrived at Old Trafford a year later for a deal that could rise past £50m. Shaw is already a pivotal member of Jose Mourinho's squad, with his fitness essential to the dynamism of the team that his manager is planning.

Prior to his horrific injury against PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League in 2015-16, Shaw had already emerged as his team's most compelling player of the season's early weeks, surpassing even Memphis Depay (whose own fine start, on reflection, looks more and more like a false dawn).

In those first few games, Shaw was outstanding. Not only did he comfortably handle his defensive duties -- at one point, he was to be found as the last man, sweeping up in a central position -- but he got forward with relish, delivering crosses from either wing.

It was interesting, and indicative of his quality that he managed to play with such freedom within Louis van Gaal's particularly rigid system. Of course, it was a feature of Van Gaal's later teams that he asked a great deal of his full-backs -- witness, for example, his 3-5-2 for Netherlands at the 2014 World Cup -- yet Shaw showed that he was ready to answer that call.

His key attribute for United's attack is that he is so good at overlapping that he will allow the team's forwards to play close together. With Shaw regularly pushing as far up as the opposition's byline, this will allow players like Depay and Martial to come infield and exploit the space where they are most dangerous. It is notable that Depay's form began to decline fairly soon after Shaw's double fracture ruled him out for the season, and though there were of course several other factors at play here, one key reason was that Depay was suddenly robbed of his excellent understanding with his teammate.

Shaw, for his own part, should look to add goals to his game. He has not yet scored a goal at professional level -- a partial reminder, maybe, that he has still played very few games -- yet he often takes up such advanced positions that he is likely to keep finding himself near the end of an attacking move. In this sense, he is reminiscent of Barcelona and Spain's Jordi Alba, another technically gifted left-back with exceptional acceleration.

Alba is, in several respects, the template for what Shaw can look to achieve at Old Trafford -- a player so dominant of his flank that he allows his midfield and attack to congest the middle of the pitch, and dominate it in turn. Moreover, Alba's goal against Italy in the final of Euro 2012 -- where he executed a sublime give-and-go with Xavi -- is the type of counter-attacking move on which Mourinho's teams have so long thrived.

Of course, Mourinho knows all about first-class left-backs, having acrimoniously signed Ashley Cole for Chelsea from Arsenal in 2005, and is thus perfectly placed to develop Shaw's talent.

Shaw is often compared to Cole, who of course had an exemplary career at both club and international level, but they are crucially different in one respect.  While Cole, towards the end of his career, was far less of an attacking threat -- preferring to devote his energies to protecting his own team's goal -- Shaw seems to have the explosiveness to be a constant danger when his team are going forward. This is a quality that he shares with another similarly diminutive left-back, Bayern Munich and Bayern Munich's Bixente Lizarazu, who maintained an impressive turn of speed almost up until his retirement.

When it comes to his full-backs, Mourinho has generally seemed keen on investing in players for the long term, and Shaw certainly has the talent to be one of those. Should he manage to steer clear of injury this year, he will almost certainly emerge as one of his team's most influential figures, both in defence and in attack.

The large fee that he commanded seemed excessive to some, but soon enough it should look like one of the club's smartest bets in some time.

Musa Okwonga is a football author, poet, musician, broadcaster and social commentator. He is on Twitter @Okwonga.