Manchester United's Champions League Ambitions: Sesko's Impact
Manchester United will face far harsher examinations of their Champions League ambitions than this. Sabah FK were out of their depth at Old Trafford, and it showed.
They may well prove to be the softest touch of the eight opponents in United’s new-look league stage. But the night still delivered something that mattered to Michael Carrick far more than the scoreline.
It reminded him what his team looks like with a fully functioning Benjamin Sesko.
Sesko changes the picture
This was Sesko’s first start since the Liverpool game in March, the afternoon when he finally stopped trying to grit his teeth through a shin problem that had nagged him for weeks. United had hoped he would be ready for the start of the Premier League season. He wasn’t. Hull away on opening day brought only a second-half cameo. Ipswich, Everton – same story.
Sabah were not so fortunate.
Fit enough to start, Sesko gave United something they simply do not possess when he is missing. At 6ft 5in, the 23-year-old offers a hulking, mobile reference point that changes the geometry of Carrick’s attack.
Amad Diallo’s absence has already stripped Carrick of the option he used in pre-season, with Bryan Mbeumo leading the line. Matheus Cunha can play there and has done so with a certain flair, but he is a different type entirely. The Brazilian wants to roam, to drop into pockets, to join the build-up. When he does, the front of United’s attack empties out.
Sesko does the opposite. He pins defenders. He stretches them. He runs at them, not away from them. And when he gets in, he finishes.
Everton saw the first reminder, his size and timing turning a close-range header into what looked like the winner before Ainsley Maitland-Niles stole the headlines with a late rocket. Against Sabah, the threat built steadily. An audacious back-flick in the first half was the warning. The goal was the punishment.
Mbeumo slipped him in beyond the visiting defence. Sesko didn’t hesitate. One touch to move the ball past the onrushing Stas Pokatilov, another to roll it into the empty net. Composed. Clinical.
“Of course, I'm happy with my goal,” Sesko told TNT afterwards. “I saw him rushing out, and it was a great opportunity to take the ball away from him and make the goal a little bit easier.”
This is the key for Carrick. It’s not that Mbeumo or Cunha lack the ability to run in behind or finish those chances. It’s that Sesko can do that while also bullying centre-backs, occupying them, and giving United a target they can hit from anywhere on the pitch.
Football has long mocked the cliché about “good control for a big man.” Players who combine that size with touch and speed are rare. When you have one, you use him.
“He definitely offers a different kind of threat,” Carrick said. “That's the beauty of it, really. We know what Ben gives us. There's not many around that kind of give you what Ben does in terms of his physique, his physicality, playing on the last line and his speed to run in behind. He's a real threat.
“It's great to have him back at this level after working to get his fitness back. A couple of goals and good performances, and good minutes in him. I'm really pleased with the way he's gone.”
Carrick’s derby dilemma
All of which leaves Carrick with the kind of problem every manager claims to want but secretly frets over.
Sunday brings the derby against Manchester City at Old Trafford. The stakes jump. The margin for error shrinks. The question is obvious.
Does he trust Sesko’s fitness and go again? Or does he step back and restore Cunha to the starting role, with no sign yet that Amad is close to returning?
On form and on feel, Sesko has earned the shirt. If Carrick agrees, the next decision moves one line back and one channel wider.
Who plays on the left?
Cunha opened the scoring against Sabah and drifts naturally into those inside-left areas. Marcus Rashford, though, watched the entire game from the bench. He has yet to score or assist since coming back from his loan at Barcelona, but he remains United’s most consistent threat with his pace and direct running.
Cunha often wanders into similar spaces to Bruno Fernandes. Rashford, by contrast, stretches the game vertically and horizontally, and that may give United a cleaner structure against a City side that punishes clutter and hesitation.
Carrick did not give anything away, even on a night when Fernandes also found the net.
“It's not an easy decision, of course it's not,” he said of his attacking options. “But it's definitely one I'd prefer: to have goals in the team and for the boys to be playing well.
“The understanding they all have is that sometimes it's going to be a start, sometimes it's going to be finishing the game. We need that within the group, from game to game over the season, to be able to call upon slightly different kind of things at different times.
“It's fantastic they're all in good form and started so well.”
Sabah FK will not define United’s European campaign. The tougher nights are coming, and soon. But this game may yet define something else: who leads the line, and who Carrick really trusts when the derby whistle blows.
