Benjamin Sesko has endured a difficult start to his Man Utd career and he squandered two good chances in the first half against Aston Villa.
Benjamin Sesko has scored two goals so far in his Manchester United career
There are certainly similarities between Rasmus Hojlund and Benjamin Sesko. Two young strikers asked to become the main man at Manchester United at a young age, on the back of limited experience and with a hefty price tag weighing them down.
It all proved too much for Hojlund, the Dane, who signed for a fee rising to £72million, had to wait until Boxing Day for his first Premier League goal and only ever delivered in flickers. By the end of his second season at Old Trafford, it was apparent that United were hunting for a new striker, and Hojlund would be rebuilding elsewhere.
After a window focusing on attacking reinforcements and with several strikers considered, it was Sesko who made the move to Manchester. He had been watched closely by Arsenal for almost a year, only for the Gunners to sign Viktor Gyokeres, who forced his way into the elite bracket under Ruben Amorim at Sporting.
Sesko’s start has been fine, nothing more and nothing less. He is still only 22 and as well as adapting to a new league, he is working his way into a new system. After five weeks out through injury, he returned to the starting line-up at Aston Villa on Sunday and missed a couple of presentable first-half chances, but Amorim is in no doubt the Slovenian will come good.
“He is returning to competition, really fast, he is going to improve a lot, the idea was 70-75 (minutes), he stopped for a while,” said Amorim. “He had that problem (food poisoning) that takes away your physicality. So we are trying to help the players winning the games and trying to control everything. I think he did well. He fought a lot. He’s going to improve.”
The issue for Hojlund last season was that games would pass him by. He didn’t get enough chances, partly through a lack of service and partly because he didn’t do enough to carve out opportunities for himself.
There were 21 occasions last season when Hojlund failed to take a single shot in a game, and in 13 of those games, he played 57 minutes or more. For Sesko so far this season, there have been four instances where he didn’t take a shot in a game, but these have occurred in matches where he played for 38 minutes, 45 minutes, 33 minutes, and 22 minutes.
The stats tell their own story. Last season, Hojlund averaged 1.44 shots per 90 minutes in the Premier League. So far this season, Sesko is averaging 2.39 shots per 90 minutes. Those are clearly encouraging numbers. The conversion rate is roughly similar, but while Hojlund felt starved of service and would let his emotions show, Sesko is getting the chances. That is the good news.
He would have wanted more than two goals to show for those efforts and he will admit his finishing needs to be sharper, but that is something within his control. In his RB Leipzig career, he scored 27 Bundesliga goals from an xG of 17.6, which suggests he is normally a ruthless finisher.
It is far too early to be worrying about Sesko after his £73.7million move in the summer. Dig a little deeper and the stats will tell you that he is already offering more than Hojlund did, even if the Dane is finding his feet at Napoli.
With Bryan Mbeumo away at the Africa Cup of Nations and Bruno Fernandes now injured, United need another attacker to come to the party over the next month. Sesko might just be that man.