Manchester United’s biggest summer signing, Benjamin Sesko, has been heavily criticized by pundit Tim Sherwood after his slow start to life at Old Trafford.
Sesko joined Man Utd from RB Leipzig after a successful run in the Bundesliga, where he scored 39 goals in 87 games over two seasons.
However, the 22-year-old has yet to start in English football, scoring just five goals in 19 games so far this season.
Sherwood appears to have serious doubts about Sesko, insisting he is one of many players in United’s squad who look “nowhere near” enough to play regularly.
Benjamin Sesko is receiving heavy criticism after a poor start to Manchester United
Sesko could still arrive, but for now Sherwood is adamant that, in his opinion, he does not believe that the Slovenian player is at the level required to play for the Red Devils.
The former Tottenham and Aston Villa manager has listed United’s greatest strikers of the Premier League season just to show how underrated Sesko looks.
“Listen, I’ve watched Benjamin and I know how difficult it is to enter a new league. You have to settle down and still develop as a player,” Sherwood told Metro.
“But I can continue with what I’ve seen and what I’ve seen so far, I think he’s carrying a lot of weight, there’s something he needs to fix. In the game I called him, he scored two goals in the game after that, listen, the kid will gain confidence from that.
“But he won’t get confidence in himself if a new coach comes in and leaves him out of the derby and United will have a good performance of the season.
“Having said that, I wouldn’t play him either, you know, from what I’ve seen so far. I just think United might have better options, but they’re not alone.”
He added: “It’s probably easy to say who I’m sure about at the moment.
“I mean, someone recently asked me about Sesko, but I can say that for many. There are many Manchester United players who shouldn’t be anywhere near.
“I live in the past a little bit because what I remember is that the United players were good. I played with the big United teams, especially the strong strikers.
“I think of 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 come from.
“They had Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole, I went on. It’s amazing, there was no rest.
“I’m guilty of living in the past when it comes to United strikers but they used to sign the best in the Premier League. Unfortunately for United that doesn’t happen anymore.”
Could Sesko be a good fit for United?
Sesko clearly needs to improve, and it is possible that at United he will not get much time to change things, such is the nature of playing for one of the biggest teams in the world.
There is a lot of pressure on this crop of players to live up to the highest standards that have been set before, and most of the players signed after Sir Alex Ferguson have not been able to do that.
However, Sesko is still young and inexperienced, so he may need to give him more time to settle and develop.
Not every player can come in and hit the ground running, with other summer signings such as Florian Wirtz and Viktor Gyokeres now coming into their own after struggling at the start of the campaign.
At the same time, Sesko probably looks like some of United’s recent strikers, such as Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee, so it will be interesting to see if they decide to make another change soon.
