Man United put Rosenborg to the sword in their second pre-season friendly of the summer last week and some of the club's academy stars took their chance to impress.
Lacey made an impression against Rosenborg
Lacey made an impression against Rosenborg
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Pre-season campaigns always offer the next generation of stars their chance to impress, and that is particularly true this summer with many clubs without their big-name stars owing to their participation in the World Cup.
Manchester United took a relatively inexperienced 25-man squad to Trondheim for their clash with Rosenborg last week, and while the inclusion of 15-year-old JJ Gabriel dominated the pre-match build-up, it was Shea Lacey who stole the show at the Lerkendal Stadion.
Lacey made his Premier League debut last year and followed that up with a couple of impressive cameos, and he will hope to spend more time around the first team next season. He did his hopes of a breakthrough campaign no harm in Trondheim, curling in an excellent opener to set United on their way to a comfortable 5-0 win.
While Lacey clearly has the talent needed to stake a claim for more first-team involvement next season, the youngster might need to bide his time with one potential major stumbling block ahead.
"He looked sharp. It was interesting he played as the No.10," Senior United Correspondent Tyrone Marshall said on the latest edition of the Manchester is Red podcast. "When the team came out there were a few conversations on social media with people saying he was going to play as the No.10, I thought he was going to play on the right with Zirkzee as the 10 and Mbeumo up front. But to put him as the No.10 was a show of faith from Carrick to give him that responsibility. You kind of steer the team from that position, don't you? Or at least Fernandes does. So it was a real show of faith.
"The interesting thing with Lacey is that there are positions in this squad that are absolutely ripe for a youngster to step up and force their way into the first team; you look at the midfield, Tyler Fletcher is one, left-back there's Harry Amass, even maybe right-back moving forward there are going to be questions with Dalot and Mazraoui, you've got Jaydan Kamason there, but right wing isn't really one of them.
"It's a little unfortunate that if United are playing Sesko up front or they sign another striker, and Mbeumo plays on the right all season and Amad plays on the right all season, it's tougher for Lacey to get into the team there. It's unfortunate that he's coming through in that position, but he's certainly going to be around it this season, he's going to get games. The early rounds of the Carabao Cup he's going to get games, he's going to be on the bench a lot."
He continued: "There's something really exciting about him and it's going to be interesting in the first half of the season to see how he kicks on and how he takes on his game, but it's just pot luck sometimes. When a youngster comes through, if the position they play in is well-stocked then it is harder for him. That's the case with Lacey at the moment, but there will certainly be opportunities there.
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