Manchester United vs Everton team news and match preview
Man Utd face Everton in the Premier League on Monday night and a teenage star is set to be in the squad.
The 18-year-old has yet to feature in a senior squad, but is set for his debut appearance in a matchday squad after he caught the eye of head coach Ruben Amorim. Lacey has three goals in nine appearances for United U21s and recently trained with the England senior squad during the October international break.
United are set to be without Benjamin Sesko and Harry Maguire for the Everton clash, while Kobbie Mainoo is a doubt after he returned to training over the weekend. Matheus Cunha is expected to be involved after he suffered a minor injury over the weekend that forced him to miss the Altrincham Christmas lights switch-on event, where he had agreed to appear as a guest.
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Amorim is a big fan of Lacey
Shea Lacey could become the next Manchester United youngster to make his senior debut for the club, and he has been praised by Ruben Amorim in recent days. Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Amorim namechecked the teenager as one of those who could step into the first-team next month when they are without both Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo due to the Africa Cup of Nations.
"I think it's going to be hard, but then that is the good thing of the experience," Amorim said of those he would lose during AFCON. "We lived so many limitations last year, because we changed in January, and we didn't bring the players, and then we had the injury of Amad for four months.
"All these things, so we are prepared for that, even it will be hard for us, but we have a different baggage to deal with that, and again, I think guys like Jack Fletcher, Shea, a lot of guys, they can step up. We can send at the same time a message to everyone here, in the academy, that this is the future, but we are going to struggle, and we have to be prepared for that."
When pushed for his opinion on teenager Lacey, the United head coach added: "I'm really happy with him, I think he struggled a little bit with injuries, they did a very good job balancing his body, you can sense that he can manage more load during training, he has a lot of talent, but when they come here, they can sense the speed is completely different, so they need to spend more time with us to be prepared, because our trainings are hard, at Premier League games, with the pressure it's harder, so they need to be ready."
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