Two goals in two games - Sesko gives Man Utd a different threat

Manchester United will experience far stiffer tests of their Champions League credentials than Sabah FK gave them at Old Trafford.

In fact, it would be no surprise if the Azerbaijani champions were by some distance the weakest of the eight league stage opponents Michael Carrick's side will come up against.

However, there were some important lessons for head coach Carrick to absorb.

The biggest of them is that United are a much more effective unit when Benjamin Sesko starts.

This was the first time the Slovenian had done that since the Liverpool game last March, when he finally accepted he could no longer play through the shin issue that had been plaguing him for a number of weeks.

It had been hoped Sesko would be fit for the start of the Premier League season.

As it turned out, he was only at the stage where he could be brought on as a substitute in the second half of the opening-day trip to Hull. The same also applied for the subsequent outings against Ipswich and Everton.

It was Sabah's bad luck that Sesko was fit to start against them – and it showed.

At 6ft 5in, the 23-year-old has a physical presence United's other strikers lack.

Amad Diallo's current absence has robbed Carrick of the option to start Bryan Mbeumo at the head of his attack, as he did during pre-season, but Matheus Cunha is not without ability in that role.

The problem is that the Brazilian likes to drift and drop back into space, which leaves a gap at the apex of Manchester United's attack.

Sesko offers a totally different threat. He pushes defences back. He is not easy to dispossess. He runs at opponents rather than away from them.

He also scores goals.

At Everton, it was his size that allowed him to convert a close-range header that looked set to give United victory but ultimately didn't, because of Ainsley Maitland-Niles' stunning late strike.

Against Sabah FK, Sesko had threatened with an impudent first-half back-flick before Mbeumo sent him running beyond the visitors' defence.

Sesko had clarity of thought, swiftly moving the ball past goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov before steering the ball into an empty net.

"Of course, I'm happy with my goal," Sesko told TNT after the game.

"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's scenario is not that Mbeumo and Cunha can't do that, it is more that Sesko can do it in addition to presenting the physical threat.

'Good control for a big man' is one of football's oldest cliches. Yet the players who can combine size with skill and pace are exceptionally useful.

"He definitely offers a different kind of threat," said Carrick.

"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."

It is a fairly obvious thing to say but Carrick now has a big decision before Sunday's derby with Manchester City at Old Trafford.

Does he trust Sesko's fitness and stick with him? Or does he revert to Cunha, given there has been no indication Amad is ready to return.

On this evidence, Sesko should get the nod. That in turn would leave Carrick to decide whether Cunha, who opened the scoring against Sabah, or Marcus Rashford, who was an unused substitute, should start on the left.

Rashford has yet to score a goal or create one since he returned to his boyhood club after last season's loan spell at Barcelona.

However, he has been their most consistent threat with his pace and direct running.

Cunha drifts into similar positions to skipper Bruno Fernandes, and Carrick may decide United's structure works better with England international Rashford.

If that is the case, he wasn't admitting it on a night when Fernandes also scored.

"It's not an easy decision, of course it's not," Carrick said of his team selection.

"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."