Manchester United’s big summer signing up front, Benjamin Sesko, has been heavily criticised by pundit Tim Sherwood after his slow start to life at Old Trafford.
Sesko joined Man Utd from RB Leipzig after impressing in the Bundesliga, where he scored 39 goals in 87 games across two seasons.
However, the 22-year-old hasn’t really got going yet in English football, scoring a mere five goals in 19 appearances so far this season.
It seems Sherwood has serious doubts about Sesko, insisting that he is one of a number of players in this United squad that looks “nowhere near” good enough to be playing regularly.
Benjamin Sesko receives heavy criticism after poor start for Manchester United
Sesko may yet come good, but for now Sherwood insists that, from what he’s seen, he does not believe the Slovenia international is of the required quality to play for the Red Devils.
The former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager listed some of the great United strikers of the Premier League era just to illustrate how much of a down-grade Sesko looks.
“Listen, I’ve watched Benjamin and I know how difficult it is coming into a new league. You’ve got to settle and he’s still developing as a player,” Sherwood told the Metro.
“But I can only go on what I’ve seen so far and what I’ve seen so far is I think he’s struggled, there’s room for improvement. In the game where I called him out he scored two goals and he scored in the game after that. So listen, the kid will get confidence from that.
“But what he won’t get confidence from is the new manager coming in and leaving him out of the derby and then United having their best performance of the season.
“Saying that, I probably wouldn’t play him either, you know, from what I’ve seen so far. I just think United have probably got better options, but he’s not alone.”
He added: “It’s probably easier to say who I am sure about at this point.
“I mean, someone just asked me about Sesko, but I would say that about so many of them. There’s so many Manchester United players who should be nowhere near.
“I do live in the past a bit though because all I remember is United players being great. I played against some great United teams and especially some great strikers.
“I think about Robin van Persie and Carlos Tevez and Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Wayne Rooney and then Sesko. You know, that’s where I’m coming from.
“They had Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, I could carry on. It’s incredible, there was no respite.
“I am guilty of living in the past regarding the United strikers but they used to sign the best one in the Premier League. Unfortunately for United that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Can Sesko come good for United?
Sesko clearly needs to improve, and it might be that at United he won’t get much time to turn things around, such is the nature of playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world.
There is huge pressure on this crop of players to live up to the exceptionally high standards set in the past, and most of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson signings haven’t managed it.
Still, Sesko is young and relatively inexperienced, so it might be worth giving him a bit more time to settle in and develop.
Not every player can come in and hit the ground running, with other summer signings like Florian Wirtz and Viktor Gyokeres now starting to come good after struggling earlier on in the campaign.
At the same time, Sesko perhaps looks more like other recent striker signings who’ve flopped at United, such as Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, so it will be interesting to see if they decide to make another change soon.
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