Manchester United's Champions League Ambitions with Sesko
Manchester United will face far harsher examinations of their Champions League ambitions than this. Sabah FK were brushed aside at Old Trafford, and there is every chance the Azerbaijani champions will prove the softest touch of United’s new-look league stage.
But the night still mattered.
Because it underlined one thing with absolute clarity: Manchester United look a very different side when Benjamin Sesko starts.
Sesko changes the picture
This was Sesko’s first start since the Liverpool game back in March, the afternoon he finally gave in to the shin problem he had tried to grit his way through for weeks. United had hoped to have him ready for the opening of the Premier League season. In reality, he was only fit enough for second‑half cameos at Hull, then against Ipswich and Everton.
Sabah picked the wrong night to visit.
At 6ft 5in, the 23-year-old brings a profile none of United’s other forwards can match. He occupies centre-backs. He bullies them. He runs at them. And crucially, he stays high, where a No 9 should be.
Amad Diallo’s absence has already cost Michael Carrick one option: using Bryan Mbeumo as a central striker, a ploy that worked in pre-season. Matheus Cunha can operate there and has the talent to hurt teams, but his instincts drag him away from the front line. He drops off, searches for pockets, wanders into areas where Bruno Fernandes already lives.
That leaves a hole at the top of the pitch.
Sesko fills it. He pins defenders, stretches the last line and offers a constant threat in behind. He is hard to knock off the ball, and he doesn’t look for safety. He looks for the goal.
A reminder of what United have been missing
At Everton, his sheer size and timing produced a close-range header that should have been the winner, only for Ainsley Maitland-Niles to steal the headlines with a spectacular late equaliser. It felt like a glimpse of what Sesko could give United once fully fit.
Against Sabah, the glimpse became a statement.
He had already tried an audacious back-flick in the first half when Mbeumo slid him through beyond the visitors’ defence. One touch took the ball past the onrushing Stas Pokatilov, the next rolled it into an empty net. Calm. Clinical. Exactly what United have lacked at times.
“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.”
United know Mbeumo and Cunha can run in behind and finish. The difference is that Sesko can do that while also bringing a centre-forward’s frame and presence. The old cliché about “good control for a big man” hangs over players like him, but the reality is simple: footballers who blend size, skill and pace are gold dust.
“He definitely offers a different kind of threat,” Carrick said. “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.”
A derby dilemma
All of which leaves Carrick with a very real decision ahead of Sunday’s derby with Manchester City at Old Trafford.
Does he back Sesko’s fitness and keep him in the side? Or does he step back to Cunha, especially with no sign yet that Amad is close to returning?
On this evidence, Sesko has earned the shirt.
If Carrick agrees, the next call is just as delicate: Cunha or Marcus Rashford on the left. Cunha opened the scoring against Sabah and links well in tight spaces. Rashford, though, remains United’s most consistent outlet in transition, even if the numbers have not followed yet.
Rashford has not scored or assisted since returning from last season’s loan at Barcelona, but his pace and direct running still stretch defences in a way few others in this squad can match. Cunha, by contrast, tends to drift into similar zones to Fernandes, which can blur United’s attacking structure.
Carrick knows it. Whether he acts on it is another matter.
“It's not an easy decision, of course it's not,” he admitted when asked about 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 season. Manchester City might. And as the derby looms, one question hangs over Old Trafford: does Carrick build his plan around the drifting false nine, or the towering No 9 who just changed the feel of his team?
