Manchester United fans have been baffled by the role former player Lee Grant has taken on.
Grant, formerly with Stoke City and Burnley, was United's reserve goalkeeper for four seasons and made two appearances.
He went on to become a goalkeeping coach and once went viral for acting as the fourth referee and keeping the bench in the 3-1 win over Newcastle.
He retired last May but immediately took up a coaching role at Ipswich Town, linking up with former United manager Kieran McKenna in his first coaching role.
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Ipswich has just won promotion to the Championship after four years, scoring 99 goals - the most of any of England's top four leagues.
But hard to believe, Grant doesn't coach "keepers". His position is listed as 'first team coach', but he has focused on the striker position at Ipswich. - which confused a lot of fans.
Ipswich is the team that scores the most goals in the top 4 English leagues.
And their forward coach is Lee Grant…👀
Misunderstood genius.🔥 #MUFC pic.twitter.com/4UEbnccQLe
– Stretford Paddock (@StretfordPaddck) May 1, 2023
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One person wrote:
"Wtf, that's crazy."
A second tweet:
"From GK to Teaching ST how to score."
A third are still skeptical, writing:
"He never was? It must be a lie
Another user commented:
How did he become a striker coach? He's a goalkeeper."
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A fifth person felt the change was meaningful because of Grant's accumulated experience, saying:
"Show attackers all the weak points of goalkeepers so they can beat them in the game!! Excellent tactics."
Grant, who holds an LMA in football management and is about to receive a professional license from UEFA, spoke about his role change in February of this year and the expertise he can bring.
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Image:
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"Outwardly, it may seem a bit strange for a goalkeeper to coach strikers, but it's certainly not for me and I hope it's not for the players," he told Premier League officials. website.
“I spent a lot of time researching how to stop the ball from going into the net, which gave me ideas that I could pass on to attackers to help them counter the mindset of defenders.
going around and thinking about it from the opposite perspective makes a lot of sense.
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"I want to see more and more goalkeepers realize that they have the potential to go on and do things outside of the area where they exist. I believe we have a lot to offer as coaches off the pitch.
"A lot of goalkeepers have this leadership gene, where they enjoy coaching, managing, leading and really pushing people. I've always enjoyed that role and I've been interested in management for a long time."
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