Graham Kavanagh on Tom Lawrence
United manager Graham Kavanagh today admitted that he will be looking to extend the loan spell of Manchester United striker Tom Lawrence beyond the current 4 January 2014 run-out date following an excellent initial three-week stay at Brunton Park.
“Tom has been excellent and he’s improving all the time,” he said. “He did what he did on Saturday, then we gave the lads two days off, and we can see today that he’s come back in with his chest puffed out and he’s full of confidence.
“It’s a new experience because he’s now got the media and people like Sky Sports wanting to talk to him, but he’s still doing things in training without even really thinking about it.”
“We still think he can learn more in terms of the defensive side of how we want to do things, but he’s shown us that he’s a very good player,” he added. “It’s one where we need to have a conversation with his club because we would like him to stay with us.
“It’s the same with every loan player because you hope they’ll come in with the right attitude and that they want to work hard and make an impression. He’s put himself in the shop window by doing what he’s done here but hopefully we’ll get a positive response.”
Wrexham-born Lawrence, 19, joined the Red Devils when he was eight and progressed through the ranks to become part of the 2011 FA Youth Cup-winning squad.
He has represented Wales at U17 and U19 level and is highly rated at Old Trafford having scored goals regularly in the Development Squad.
Lawrence made his debut for the Cumbrians when he came on as a substitute in the away game at Swindon in November and scored his first career goals against Tranmere on Saturday with two strikes which comfortably made it into the Sky Sports ‘Goals of the Week’ top ten.