‘He could do the Ronaldinho flip flap when he was 3’
In what was another underwhelming result for Manchester United in their first match after Ruben Amorim, a couple performances stood out.
Benjamin Sesko scored twice in the 2-2 draw at relegation-threatened Burnley on Thursday, but the late arrival of one 18-year-old raised plenty of eyebrows.
Shea Lacey, making only his second appearance for the club, looked to take the game by its horns after a late arrival, crashing the bar from range.
He then had another speculative effort from 25 yards in stoppage time, which went narrowly wide.
Lacey, who has represented England at youth level, was born in Liverpool and is eligible for the Republic of Ireland.
But following a series of stand-out performances for United Under-21s, Lacey was given the opportunity to mix it with England’s senior stars ahead of their World Cup qualifiers against Wales and Latvia in October.
Lacey, who plays as both a right winger and No 10, was occasionally training with United’s first team at the time, but has now been given first-team minutes having also got 10 minutes against Aston Villa in December.
Former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart praised Lacey after the fame, saying: “Tell you what, he’s a player. He reminds me of Phil Foden the way he moves.”
Fans were impressed by Lacey on social media on Wednesday night, with one saying: “My mistake was thinking shea lacey needed to be protected, na the league needs protecting from shea lacey.”
Lacey’s brother Paddy told GOAL in the summer: “Shea could do the Ronaldinho flip flap when he was three years old. That was his little trick. In every game he’d go to the corner and flip flap and he would get away with it.
“He’s well known for it where we live in Liverpool. Then he started doing it at Man United and everywhere.”
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The youngster had a season ticket at Anfield when he was younger, but his brother says he Shea now a converted United fan.
“United always looked after him, they always rolled out the red carpet for Shea. He was captain of every age group so it was a complex in his head: ‘Am I Man United or am I Liverpool?’ He chose the dark side!”
