Shaughnessy's Emergence From Nowhere

 

Well, not quite nowhere. Thomas Christiansen has been making use of him from the very start of pre-season but there was nothing to suggest that the 20-year-old would be knocking on the door of the first team so quickly.

There was nothing to suggest either that Shaughnessy would offer a capable fall-back in the centre of defence if Christiansen’s resources grew as thin as they have.

 

He was a central midfielder during his time with Reading’s academy and signed for Leeds 12 months ago as padding for a development squad which was short on numbers and short on nous.

Having been released by Reading, Shaughnessy is reinventing himself as a centre-back and marked his full league against a very dangerous Fulham team with a performance which bordered on faultless.

 

It’s funny how football works out.