Gary Neville claims Benjamin Sesko is 'nowhere near' for Man Utd and hatches new plan

Gary Neville believes Benjamin Sesko is “nowhere near” the level required for Manchester United but still believes he should start in their next game. Sesko, 22, has started on the bench in each of the Red Devils’ opening two Premier League games following his £74m switch from RB Leipzig.

He has come on as a substitute against both Arsenal and Fulham - with United only scoring once so far this season. But he has had a limited impact in both of his cameo appearances.

United icon Neville believes that the striker is still getting up to speed fitness-wise and has suggested handing him his first start in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup second round clash against Grimsby Town.

Speaking on the Gary Neville podcast, the former defender said: “Sesko at the moment - let's just say it, he is nowhere near in terms of fitness or getting up to speed. Obviously there is a clamour to play him. Even I was saying last week let's get him straight in.

“[Amorim] is going to have to get Sesko in against Grimsby and give him 90 minutes so that he can be played [from the start] against Burnley next Saturday 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 Mason Mount in the team.

“But when Sesko did come on and Mount went into midfield and they took Casemiro off, they did get opened up and it looked [more likely] that Fulham would score.”

Sesko netted 21 goals for Leipzig last season, with many hoping that he would be the solution to United’s goalscoring woes. But that has not transpired so far across a start to the season that has seen Ruben Amorim’s side pick up just one point.

What team should Amorim play vs Grimsby? Share your thoughts in the comments below

Asked why he chose to bench his new forward for the second consecutive game, the United boss explained: "We tried to imagine what is going to happen during the game.

“Our team needs to be consistent in the way that we control the game and we need to have options to play a different game on the bench. Sesko has had two weeks for us, he is trying to understand everything. We need to wait a little bit to help the player. We just want to win the game and try to help all of our players."

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