Manchester United young talent Shea Lacey has shared a message of determination on social media following Wednesday night’s 2-2 stalemate at Burnley. The Red Devils found themselves behind at half-time thanks to an unlucky own goal from Aiden Haven.
Benjamin Sesco’s double after the interval turned the tide in United’s favor, but just as victory seemed within reach, Jadon Anthony leveled the game. The result was frustrating for caretaker manager Darren Fletcher, who abandoned Ruben Amorim’s tactical set-up featuring three centre-backs and a wing-back, despite his side creating a number of scoring chances.
A bright spot emerged with young attacker Lacey, who rattled the crossbar and impressed throughout at Turf Moor. The 18-year-old released a short 10-word statement on Instagram reflecting on the lawsuit.
He wrote, “I did my best until the end. Thank you to all my fans,” along with a red love heart emoji.
Lacey’s message received a huge response. Brian Mbeumo (currently playing for Cameroon at the African Cup of Nations), Joshua Zirkzee, Lisandro Martinez, Matheus Cunha and Patrick Dorg were among the United officials who thanked him for his update.
Teammate Dan Gore responded with a love heart emoji, while fellow Red Devils Reece Bennett and Harry Amass added comments of “amazing” and “special” respectively.
Fletcher expressed confidence that Lacey would play a “huge role” in United’s future after an encouraging cameo against the Clarets. Darren Fletcher praised the youngster’s performance and revealed his tactical instructions. “I told him to stay wide and do what he had to do, and he did that,” Fletcher explained.
“I know he’s going to have an impact, I know he’s creative.
“He’s scoring goals. He’s exciting, he’s direct, he’s fearless, he hit the crossbar and he also took shots, so he had a really bright game.”
Fletcher expressed his satisfaction with the player’s progress after a difficult period, saying: “I’m happy because he hasn’t really been able to really hit the ground running in the last few years with a lot of injuries, but we know his talent and he’s going to be a big part of Manchester United’s future. There’s no doubt about that.”
United’s coach had called for an entertaining performance from his team and was pleased with his team’s attacking intent.
“It was important for them to be aggressive, to attack, to present themselves, to showcase what they have as individuals and players, to really come forward, be aggressive, be exciting,” he explained. “Those were the challenges we gave them, and they met them.
“As I said, I don’t think it was perfect, but there were a lot of good things in it. When I look back at that game, I think apart from maybe the start and after we led 2-1, we pretty much dominated the rest of the game and created a lot of chances.”
“We are probably disappointed that we didn’t score more goals because when you create so many chances you have to score more goals.”
