“We struggled without reference as a striker.” That was Ruben Amorim's judgment about the last pre-season match of Manchester United against Fiorentina. “We have a new player, so we'll see.” The hope is that Benjamin Sesko can make the difference.
The raw potential is clear. This is a player who is at 6ft 5 in a long time, but also has a pace. He can lead the ball and fire bright shots from a distance. And there is conviction that his hold-up play will improve, also loses weight but Amorim offers its reference.
In short, Sesko seems special. Speaking of him against Matej Orazem, his old sports director at NK Domzale, he told Sky Sports: “I think he is intended for greatness. It is not only physicality, it is the technical aspect. He will be successful wherever he goes.”
But the modern association has perhaps become the ultimate test of that theory. For £ 73.7 million, with the summer spending on their new forward trio being brought to more than £ 200 million, Ruben Amorim is certainly supported. That puts pressure to make it work – and quickly.
Amorim has been open about the fact that he is still lucky to be in his work, depending on the support of those above him after a miserable series of results that led to the worst competition of United in more than 50 years. The consensus is that the mood has now changed.
Luke Shaw recently admitted that the environment in the club could be “extremely negative” and “pretty toxic” before he claims that it is now different. Unhappy players have continued. New have arrived with a point to prove. A cultural reset.
Time in the training area has also helped and the absence of European football means that there will be more of that during the campaign. Amorim will have the opportunity to show why he was in the first place considered a top young coach.
However, the summer spending increases expectations. United are already fifth favorites for the title. Do not secure the European qualification and they will be for back-to-back seasons for the first time since the ban on English clubs from Europe.
The challenge is that Sesko is not the completed article. At least for now, United is not on that market. And their opening Premier League match of the season offers an intriguing contrast. Opponents Arsenal followed Sesko for a long time, a movement that was on his hands.
Eventually they opted for Viktor Gyokeres. The Sweden International has plundered more than 100 goals for Club and Land at Sporting in the past two seasons – more than Sesko is still there in his career. But he is 27. A signing for the here and the now.
Perhaps that reflects the feeling of urgency of Arsenal, a side that has been so close to large silverware in recent seasons, a side looking for the last part of their own puzzle. United is rather in the process, bet on Sesko to develop into the superior player.
His target production may not be as immediately impressive as that of Gyokees, but his 39 goals for RB Leipzig in all competitions in the past two seasons means that he has scored more than anyone else younger than 23 in the five major competitions of Europe at the time in Europe.
It places him at the top of an illustrious list, although the presence of another name is a little further down, it is a memory that, as former United coach Rene Meulensteen says, they “actually do exactly what they did with Rasmus Hojlund” with this signing.
That means that United spends big in the hope of developing their own elite ahead. Hojlund scored nine for Atalanta in the Serie A prior to his arrival. Joshua Zirkzee managed 11 for Bologna before signing the next summer. For Sesko it was 13 at Leipzig.
That can somewhat temper the expectations. But speak with others and they will tell you that Sesko has better instincts. He is a player who can find space in the penalty box, someone who can remove his shots unusually for a player of his size.
He is not Alexander Isak yet and that is reflected in the price tag. But Isak was 22 years old, as Sesko is now, when he arrived in the Premier League after a season in which he scored six times in 32 games for Real Sociedad in LaLiga. That is the process to focus.
Making it possible is the difficult part and it is now Amorim's task to help Sesko succeed where so many have struggled in a united shirt in recent years and have potentially fulfilling. Flanked by Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, there is at least creativity around him.
Mbeumo and Cunha are strong ball carriers that attract others to them and create space. “It will be special,” Amorim said of his two new Wide Forwards after the Fiorentina match. “I think they might be 50, 60 percent of what they can do.”
But another word of caution. There is some risk that the opposite is true. There were only three players in the Premier League who surpassed their expected goals last season. One was Chris Wood. The other two were Mbeumo and Cunha.
Of the 10 earlier players who have done this in the last eight years, only the Heung – Min Son scored more goals in the following season – and he dropped dramatically the following year. The vast majority of the players have seen their goal well to the average.
One of the reasons signed for Liverpool is Hugo Ekitike that he actually underperformed his expected goals – they recognized the potential for his figures to explode. United seems to have gone the opposite route and tries to sign Elite finishers.
Sesko could fall into that category after he had scored 27 Bundesliga objectives with an expected value of only 17.6 in the past two seasons. Could he be another son, another Harry Kane, who consistently ends better than the statistics suggest?
If so, it could define the season of United and with it Amorim's reign. There are of course other factors. The balance in midfield is a concern and the wingbacks will be the key. But it is this new forward line that will probably determine how the rebuild is observed.
MBeumo and Cunha have Premier League trolley tree that will buy some time. Quite unfair, the referendum on the young Sesko can come earlier than that. A quick impact on Arsenal, with Gyokees under the opposition, would be the most useful.