Manchester United's Striker Dilemma: Can Sesko Solve the Issue?

Manchester United’s attack is already under the microscope, and Benjamin Sesko hasn’t even started a game yet.

The Slovenian striker missed the entire pre-season with a shin injury and has been restricted to cameos so far. In his place, Michael Carrick has turned to Matheus Cunha through the middle against Hull City, Ipswich Town and Everton, gambling on a forward who has rarely lived as a traditional No.9.

So far, that bet hasn’t paid off.

A Blunt Centre in a Team of Sharp Edges

Out wide, United look alive. Bryan Mbuemo has carried his early-season form straight into this campaign. Marcus Rashford has started brightly as well, stretching defences and offering a constant out ball.

But down the middle, United have been playing without teeth.

Cunha, signed from Wolves last year, built his reputation cutting in from the left or drifting between the lines. He’s a runner, a connector, a chaos-maker. What he has never truly been is a penalty-box reference point. That reality has hung over United’s opening weeks.

The contrast was glaring at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Sesko came off the bench against Everton and needed only one moment to remind everyone what a proper centre forward looks like. He attacked a Luke Shaw cross with conviction, powered in a superb header, and for a brief spell United looked like a side with a focal point again.

Then they let it slip.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles struck late to earn Everton a draw and strip the shine off Sesko’s impact. One ruthless finish, undone by United’s inability to close out a game they should have controlled.

Scholes Tears Into Carrick’s Call

That performance did not sit well with Paul Scholes.

Speaking on The Good, The Bad, and The Football, the former United midfielder didn’t bother softening his verdict. He went straight for the jugular, questioning both the team’s mentality and Carrick’s tactical choices.

“I felt it was really timid against Everton,” Scholes said. “There was no aggression and Everton were there for the taking. There was so much space and they never went for the throat.”

For Scholes, the issue starts with the team sheet.

“The centre forward position is a bit of an issue because he is not playing Sesko,” he added. “He is a focal point. It is very difficult to watch a Manchester United team without a centre forward. With Cunha, we don’t really know what he is, a No.10 or a wide player but he’s definitely not a No.9 and watching United without a No.9 is a struggle.”

That is not a gentle nudge from a club legend. It is a direct challenge to Carrick’s thinking, and it lands at a delicate moment.

Carrick Under Strain as City Loom

Three league games. One win, one draw, one defeat. Four points from a possible nine.

On paper, it is not a crisis. In the context of what is coming next, it feels like the calm before a storm.

Enzo Maresca’s Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford with a perfect domestic record: three wins from three, three statements of intent. City look settled, slick, and ruthless. United, by comparison, look incomplete.

Carrick knows exactly what Sesko can offer when fully fit. Under his management last season, the striker delivered an outstanding return: a goal every 85 minutes. Those numbers do not belong on the bench. They belong at the heart of an attack that has started the season without a clear identity through the middle.

If United are serious about halting City’s early momentum, they need more than tidy build-up and bright wingers. They need someone to occupy centre-backs, pin them back, and punish any lapse. They need a proper No.9.

Right now, that player is sitting on the edge of the XI.

Europe as Sesko’s Springboard

Before the derby, there is a different kind of test.

Sabah FK come to Old Trafford on Thursday for a Champions League tie that, on paper, United should control. For Carrick, it offers more than three points. It offers a laboratory.

This is the ideal stage to push Sesko’s fitness, to give him a longer run, to see how his body responds to starting intensity after that shin injury wiped out his summer. It is also a chance for the striker to make his manager’s decision for him.

A dominant display against the Azerbaijani side – sharp movement, presence in the box, a goal or two – would be impossible to ignore with City on the horizon.

Carrick has tried the experiment of a striker-less United. Scholes has voiced what many in the stands are already thinking. The numbers from last season are sitting there in black and white.

Now the question is simple: does Sesko turn a European night into the springboard that forces his way back into the Premier League spotlight, just in time for the derby that could define United’s early season?