Vladimir Smicer Challenges Benjamin Sesko to Shine at Manchester United
Vladimir Smicer has thrown down a challenge to both Benjamin Sesko and Michael Carrick – play him, trust him, and Manchester United could have a Golden Boot winner on their hands.
Sesko is, on paper, the obvious solution. He is the only recognised senior number nine in the squad, the only natural centre-forward in a dressing room packed with versatile attackers. Matheus Cunha and Joshua Zirkzee can operate through the middle, but neither is a pure striker in the traditional sense.
Yet six Premier League games into the season, Sesko is still waiting for his first league start.
Carrick has consistently gone with Cunha as his central option, leaving Sesko to watch the bulk of United’s domestic campaign from the bench. His opportunities have come elsewhere: starts in the Champions League and the Carabao Cup, flashes rather than a full run.
The numbers hint at potential. The 23-year-old Slovenia international, signed from RB Leipzig in the summer of 2025 for £73.7 million, has scored two goals in six appearances across all competitions. Not explosive, but not insignificant either for a player still feeling his way into a new role at a club of this size.
For Smicer, that sample is enough to demand more.
“He can win the Golden Boot”
Speaking to Grosvenor Sport, the former Liverpool midfielder did not hold back when assessing Sesko’s ceiling at Old Trafford.
“Benjamin Sesko can win the Golden Boot at Manchester United if they trust him to start games because of his size and he’s also very fast,” Smicer said, pointing to the striker’s impact off the bench. He highlighted Sesko’s headed goal against Everton as proof of what he can offer, a sharp contribution that still wasn’t enough to earn him a starting place in the Manchester derby.
That, for Smicer, is the crux of the issue. The talent is there. The trust is not.
Sesko, he believes, stands at a familiar crossroads for a young forward at an elite club: wait, or grab. “He has to be patient again after last season and wait for his chance, because he will get that chance, and when he does he needs to show that he deserves to keep his place.”
Patience, though, is not passive. Smicer wants edge, urgency, a forward who plays like every minute could be his last.
“He needs to be more hungry for that opportunity, not just the goals, I think,” he continued. “When he’s on the pitch, when he gets his chance from Michael Carrick, he must show him that from now on it’s only me who starts up front for the goals, for the pressing, for everything.”
That is a direct challenge: dominate or drift.
Smicer admitted he has not consistently seen that ruthless streak from Sesko yet, but his message is clear. The striker, he says, has to make himself undroppable.
“He can’t give his manager a choice,” Smicer insisted. “Sesko needs to be the player whose performances tell Carrick you do not put on the bench again. I’m here. I need to play every game.”
Right now, United’s only natural number nine is a supporting act. The question hanging over Carrick’s selection board is simple: how long can a £73.7m striker stay on the fringes before that equation has to change?
