Rio Ferdinand says he is ‘concerned’ Manchester United aren’t getting the best out of Benjamin Sesko and believes there is some confusion surrounding the striker’s role in Ruben Amorim’s system.
Sesko started on the bench as the Red Devils surrendered a one-goal lead to draw 1-1 away to Fulham on Sunday, just as he had done against Arsenal previously.
And while Amorim sent Sesko on in place of Casemiro in the 53rd minute, United’s £74million signing failed to make a meaningful impact as Emile Smith Rowe cancelled out Rodrigo Muniz’s earlier own goal in the capital.
Facing the media after the Craven Cottage contest, Amorim encouraged United fans to be patient with Sesko, saying the Slovenia international simply ‘needed time’ to adjust to the pace of the Premier League.
The United boss, though, insisted he was ‘really happy’ with Sesko’s application on the training ground and is confident the forward’s talent will shine through as the campaign goes on.
Your ultimate guide to the football season
Metro's weekly football newsletter: In The Mixer. Exclusive analysis, FPL tips and transfer talk sent straight to your inbox every Friday – sign up, it's an open goal.
But analysing the club’s latest disappointment on his Rio Ferdinand Presents YouTube channel, a somewhat puzzled Ferdinand questioned what exactly Sesko was being asked to do when coming off the bench.
The former England defender also criticised United’s more senior players for failing to help their new team-mate ‘find his feet’ in his debut season in English football.
‘Get the ball into him. He isn’t going to be an easy day’s work. Get it into him and make them defend,’ Ferdinand said.
‘But we are playing it around him. Sometimes it’s like really basic, fundamental things.
‘Get it into someone who can cause problems but we go against that. So that was my main concern, you are not getting to see who he is.’
The six-time Premier League winner added: ‘I would rather you play it into him and he look rubbish so we know what we’ve got because, right now, I don’t know what he is or what he’s doing.
‘I’m not pointing the finger but you have got to help your team-mates find their feet in the team.’
According to Ferdinand, the visitors let Fulham ‘off the hook’ after their promising start in the match.
‘We were dominating the life out of Fulham, scaring the life out of them,’ he explained.
‘I would have thought every Fulham fan, player and member of staff would have been going, “What’s happening here? This isn’t the Manchester United we were expecting to see”, and at those moments there, the best teams punish the weak.
‘They put their put on their throat and say, “Stay there”, and that’s what we didn’t do. We let them off the hook.’
Even when United took the lead in the 58th minute, Ferdinand never really felt Amorim’s side were in the ascendancy.
He continued: ‘We went 1-0 up but we weren’t the team in the ascendancy at that time, we weren’t the team dominating.
‘Fulham were back in the game and it kind of came against the run of play a little bit.
‘But I look at the team and it feels, at the minute, that if we don’t go and take the game and score a goal when we’re doing well, it can destabilise us when the other team starts getting into the game.
‘I understand why that is because there’s a lack of confidence in the players based on last season and there’s still a hangover from some of the things that went on last season.
‘It’s not like you get confidence and supreme confidence in yourselves that you can ride a bit of pressure, you can ride a change of momentum in the game. You can get through it and bob and weave.
‘We go on the back foot in those moments, start chasing and losing our shape.
‘That’s when discipline has to set in, that’s when comfort in who we are has to come into play.’
Ferdinand’s long-time team-mate, Gary Neville, has similar concerns surrounding Sesko and feels the former RB Leipzig attacker is ‘nowhere near’ in terms of match fitness.
‘I said this last week and it’s a little bit worrying: Fulham got a lot stronger when they made their substitutions, I actually thought United got worse when they made theirs,’ the former United and England full-back said on Sky Sports after the final whistle.
‘Sesko, at the moment, let’s just say it, he’s nowhere near in terms of fitness or just getting up to speed.’
Despite Sesko’s apparent lack of sharpness, Neville would like to see the forward given the nod from the start when United return to action against Grimsby in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night.
He added: ‘Ruben Amorim said before the game that there is a clamour to play him. Last week, I was saying, “Look, let’s just get him straight in”.
‘He is going to have to get him in against Grimsby and give him 90 minutes. He’s going to have to probably play him against Burnley next Saturday, just to get him going, because you can see he needs football.
‘What you can’t do is let a player of that value, that potential, just keep being on the bench.
‘The problem he’ll have is that he wants to keep [building] the team, but I think what you saw when they brought Sesko on, put Mount into midfield and took Casemiro off, they did get opened up and it looked like Fulham could score.’
For more stories like this, check our sport page.
Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
No comments:
Post a Comment