The sight of a bulked-up Benjamin Sesko in pre-season training has got tongues wagging at Manchester United, the hope being that the towering Slovenian can blossom into a truly formidable number nine next season.
Signed on a £74m deal last summer, the ex-RB Leipzig man overcame a slow, injury-hit start to 2025/26 to emerge as a real force under Michael Carrick‘s watch, ending the campaign with a creditable total of 11 Premier League goals and 12 in all competitions.
The man tasked with replacing Rasmus Hojlund at Old Trafford still needs to prove that he isn’t merely a replica of the young Dane, with the one-time Atalanta starlet having scored ten times during his first Premier League season, before things tailed off the following year.
|
Hojlund vs Sesko – 1st PL season |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Hojlund |
Stat (*per game) |
Sesko |
|
30 |
Games |
30 |
|
25 |
Starts |
17 |
|
10 |
Goals |
11 |
|
217 |
Mins per goal |
149 |
|
26% |
Goal conversion |
18% |
|
13 |
Big chances missed |
12 |
|
0 |
Big chances created |
0 |
|
2 |
Assists |
1 |
|
1.3 |
Shots* |
2.0 |
|
6.6 |
Ball lost* |
6.3 |
That tale is one which United have seen time and again over the last decade or so, in truth, with no centre-forward ever really kicking on after their debut year at the club.
Watch out Sesko – Man Utd’s second-season striker curse
No striker or player in general, for that matter, has reached 20 top-flight goals or more in a season for the Red Devils since Robin van Persie in 2012/13, albeit with even the Dutchman himself proving something of a one-season wonder, having scored just 12 the following year.
Anthony Martial, meanwhile, sparkled initially after ending 2015/16 as the club’s top scorer in all competitions, albeit while never truly hitting those heights again, aside from his 17 league goal haul in 2019/20.
The man who took Martial’s number nine shirt in 2016, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, saw a fine season derailed by a serious knee injury, having only returned in 2016/17 for two mere cameos before heading out to LA Galaxy.
The Swede’s replacement, Romelu Lukaku, scored 27 across all fronts in 2017/18, yet by the time of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s arrival midway through the next season, he was swiftly cast aside, prior to being sold on to Inter Milan that summer.
That trend continued in the case of Edinson Cavani too, the experienced Uruguayan emerging as something of a cult hero in Manchester, before fading from view after Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival in 2021.
Indeed, Cavani scored just twice that season, after netting 17 times in the year prior.
Even Ronaldo, who scored 24 goals across fronts in 2021/22, was gone no sooner than he’d returned, following his public fallout with Erik ten Hag, lasting just a matter of months into 2022/23 before heading to Saudi Arabia.
As noted, Hojlund’s story was a similar one, after netting just four league goals in a forgettable second season, with it not exactly looking promising for young Sesko heading into next term.
Man Utd could be looking to sign an upgrade on Sesko
The problem facing Sesko is that with Joshua Zirkzee attracting interest from Italy, United could be in the market for a new striker, someone who might well provide more stern competition to the 23-year-old.
Reports over the weekend indicated that Ollie Watkins might be one of the options under consideration, with the Aston Villa man having been Ruben Amorim’s preferred pick last summer.
The i Paper has since corroborated those claims, albeit while also noting that Dusan Vlahovic has been ‘mentioned’ as a potential option, following the Serbian’s exit from Juventus.
Available on a free transfer, amid the expiry of his contract in Turin, the 26-year-old might well be something of a no-brainer for the INEOS regime, particularly at a time when funds may need to be spent elsewhere.
Vlahovic has endured his fair share of injury woes of late, after starting only 11 Serie A games last term, yet it’s difficult to argue with what he offers in front of goal, with even that limited game time yielding seven goals at a rate of one every 139 minutes.
In Sesko’s case, for instance, he scored once every 149 minutes in the Premier League.
At 6 foot 3 and with a cannon of a left foot, Vlahovic at his best is almost a supercharged version of the young United man, the one-time Fiorentina powerhouse showcasing his scoring credentials over an extended period now for club and country.
Currently on 16 goals in just 41 games for Serbia, the in-demand marksman has scored 68 in 168 for Juve, after previously netting 49 in 108 in Florence.
Sesko, as yet, hasn’t proven himself to be quite so prolific, netting just 29 in 79 for Red Bull Salzburg, before hitting 39 in 87 during his time in Germany.
From the start of 2020/21, until the end of 2024/25, Vlahovic also scored at least ten goals in each of those Serie A seasons, his peak spell coming between in 2020/21 and 2021/22, as he scored 45 league goals combined.
Even in 2023/24 he still managed to fire in 16 times in Serie A, having shown himself to be “one of the best strikers in the world“, in the view of Italy great Luca Toni.
Take his Champions League record, for instance, with Vlahovic scoring nine in just 20 outings in the competition to date. In Sesko’s case, he has played 28 times in Europe’s premier competition, albeit while scoring only six times.
This is a sense that Vlahovic could actually usurp Sesko as United’s new physical frontman if a deal is to be pursued, with this squad certainly crying out for more firepower heading into 2026/27.