A year earlier, he had been put in the squad for a European Cup semi-final against FC Zürich and, although he didn't play, manager Bob Paisley said he would have had no qualms about using him if required.
Lee became a regular from 1980 onwards and, although small in stature, he established a reputation as a sharp-passing and strong-running midfield player who could also hit a decent shot.
In the 1981 League Cup final, Lee was at the centre of a controversial incident which left opponents West Ham United feeling slightly cheated.
The West Ham defence pushed out of their area to leave Lee in an offside position but when Liverpool full back Alan Kennedy scored with a follow-up shot, the goal stood.
In that year's European Cup semi-final against Bayern Munich, Lee was unusually asked to do a man-marking job on Paul Breitner, the strong and skilful West German international.
Bobby Robson gave Lee the first of his 14 England caps during this period, where he again scored on his debut in the 3–0 1984 UEFA European Championship qualifier victory over Greece, on 17 November 1982.
Lee became a part-time coach under Sven-Göran Eriksson with England in 2001,[3] eventually leaving Liverpool to go full-time with the national set-up in July 2004.
[9] He became the firm favourite to become assistant coach to Rafa Benitez following Alex Miller's departure from Liverpool and officially returned to the club when appointed on 16 May 2008.
[10] In November 2008, upon his return to the Reebok Stadium for the first time since his departure, Lee stated that he bore no animosity towards the hierarchy at Bolton or their supporters, the Wanderers crowd responded by giving him a round of applause in appreciation of his spells as player and assistant manager.
[16] He left Liverpool in June 2011 by mutual consent having remained at the club for the duration of Roy Hodgson’s tenure and the return of Kenny Dalglish.
On 27 June 2014, Lee agreed to leave Bolton to join Brighton & Hove Albion as assistant manager to Sami Hyypia, with both knowing each other from their time together at Liverpool.