Manchester United spent more than £200 million to bring Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Benjamin Sesko to Old Trafford last summer.
While the Premier League-proven pair have settled in to life at the club relatively quickly, Sesko has failed to live up to expectations.
The former RB Leipzig striker has scored just two goals in 11 appearances, a tally which has attracted widespread criticism from outside the club.
However, despite Sesko’s struggles, the Red Devils went into the November international break seventh in the table, just two points behind third-placed Chelsea.
Reputable online sportsbook Betway rates United as 2/1 shots to finish in the top four and those odds could be good value if Sesko starts fulfilling his potential.
Amorim Backs Sesko to Come Good
Former United defender Gary Neville claimed Sesko was ‘well off it’ in the recent 2-2 draw at Nottingham Forest, while several other pundits got stuck into him.
Manager Ruben Amorim moved quickly to support the Slovenian striker, and has backed him to come good for United as the season progresses.
“He has no experience here and then the first impact when everyone says that ‘you are so good, you are the next big thing’, and you hear about that with Sesko,” Amorim said. “Then you come to one club that is the hardest club.
“If you don’t perform every week, you are going to hear a lot of things from club legends, from pundits, from the media, and sometimes they are right.
“To have the ability to understand that is normal and still maintain your level of confidence is really hard for a young kid, especially for a young kid that is a control freak, wants to control everything, and he’s not going to control everything.
“When I started training with Ben, he has more potential than I was thinking. He’s going to struggle and we need to understand how he likes to play also to put in our ideas, so I’m quite relaxed with that.
“He is going to be our striker for the long term, but he’s going to have these struggles and these bumps during the ride, and that is a normal thing in football.”
Amorim’s views on Sesko contained several elements which should give United fans confidence about his capacity to deliver the goods.
His ‘control freak’ comment relates to Sesko’s eagerness to go the extra mile. He reportedly arrives to training before everyone else and is generally one of the last to leave.
Amorim also highlighted that he needs to understand how Sesko likes to play and vice-versa. While patience is often in short supply in football, it is needed in this instance.
The manager’s insistence on sticking to his favoured tactical system has repeatedly been questioned, but recent results suggest his methods are slowly paying dividends.
United Need to be Patient with Sesko
A similar degree of leeway will need to be given to Sesko as he not only gets to grips with Amorim’s tactical demands, but also the pace and physicality of the Premier League.
He has a much better chance of succeeding than Rasmus Hojlund, who was let down by a set-up which failed to play to his strengths.
By contrast, Cunha and Mbeumo are an excellent supporting cast and it will only be a matter of time before the trio develop a productive understanding.
In the short-term, Sesko could be the difference-maker for Man United in the top-four race once everything clicks into gear.
Looking further ahead, if United acquire a top-class central midfielder worthy of the name, he could start to rival Manchester City’s Erling Braut Haaland in the goalscoring stakes.