The alarm bells have started to jingle, if not ringing outright, after Man Utd’s draw at Fulham, and Rio Ferdinand is exasperated by how the team is playing with one player in particular.
Among the many Man Utd pundits who are always good for a sensational line attacking the club, Rio Ferdinand is one of the rare ones who always tries to strike a positive tone.
That makes it all the more notable when he’s the one who’s exasperated by something at the club, which means it’s a major issue more often than not.
Ferdinand has now made his annoyance clear with how the team is playing with one player in particular, going as far as to say that he would even prefer the player ‘look rubbish’ than whatever is happening right now.
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Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Rio Ferdinand confused by Benjamin Sesko’s use at Man Utd
The excitement surrounding Benjamin Sesko’s signing has fizzled out to an extent, which might well be what Amorim wanted to do.
The Man Utd manager has been careful about managing expectations surrounding the striker, and has resisted the temptation of throwing him in at the deep end.
However, protecting him from the limelight still doesn’t explain how the team seems to play with him, going completely against his every strength.
In both games so far, Sesko has cut an isolated figure up top after coming on, with the team not able to play to his strengths.
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There is a lack of crosses and balls played in the channel, with most of Sesko’s work limited to making something out of nothing.
He’s constantly played Hail Mary long balls and asked to hold it up because nobody in the team is interested in actually progressing the game in a coherent way, and helping the striker score goals.
The Fulham game was even worse for this season, and it finally broke the limit of Ferdinand’s patience.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ferdinand said of Sesko: “He isn’t going to be an easy day’s work. Get it into him and make them defend. 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.
“I would rather you play it into him and he looks 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 to help your teammates find their feet in the team.”
Sesko is a victim of systemic failure
All of this needs to be said with the disclaimer that it has only been two games, but that’s only if nobody has been watching United strikers struggle to get into the game for the last few seasons.
It can be argued that United haven’t played well with a striker since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer tore the league apart with Anthony Martial-Marcus Rashford-Mason Greenwood/Edinson Cavani.
Since then, questions have been raised over Rasmus Hojlund, and United have even played a False 9 system at times, but the failure is quite clearly systemic.
If Sesko, whom Amorim has raved about, is also suffering from the same fate as Hojlund of not being involved in the game, then the dam will finally break.
Just like there’s an acceptance at United that the manager can be one of the problems, but never the problem, the same leeway needs to be given to United strikers at this point.
This team struggles to get the striker involved. Swapping Hojlund for Sesko won’t change a thing unless the systemic failure is addressed.