Benjamin Sesko: Man Utd striker should not take criticism personally – Amorim

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim has admitted £73.7million striker Benjamin Sesko has struggled at times in his first few weeks at the club but warned him not to take criticism from club legends personally.

Sesko scored two goals in his first 11 games for United.

He last scored against Sunderland at Old Trafford on October 4 and his performance at Nottingham Forest last weekend led former captain Gary Neville to declare that the Slovenian international was “miles away” compared to fellow newcomers Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.

Amorim agrees that Neville’s comments are important. But he also feels they lack the context of Sesko moving to a new league at the age of 22, having spent just two seasons with RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga.

“I’m relieved,” he said. “[But] not comfortable.

“I understand how things are in football and that he will struggle. That’s normal. He has no experience here.

“First impact [is] When everyone says you’re so good, you become the next big thing, and you hear that about Sesko too.

“Then you come to a club that is the most difficult club, if you don’t perform every week you will hear a lot of things from club legends, from pundits, from the media and sometimes they are right.

“Of course, no one likes to hear that, but he struggled a little bit and that’s a fact, so let’s embrace that.

“This is hard to hear, but it’s not personal. This is an opinion that will change in three weeks. Everything that is true today, in three weeks, may be a lie.”

Sesko is understood to have spent a lot of time at United’s Carrington training ground to understand the performance levels he delivers compared to the performance levels he needs to achieve.

He often arrives more than 90 minutes earlier than his normal meeting time of 9:45 a.m. and doesn’t leave until 4 p.m., long after most of his teammates.

United sources believe they made the right decision to sign Sesko and also sent Rasmus Hojlund on loan to Napoli. Even though the Dane has scored four goals in nine appearances for the Italian champions.

“I’m a young boy, a control freak,” Amorim said.

“He wants to control everything, but he won’t control everything.

“It has more potential than I thought [but] We need to understand how he likes to play and put forward our ideas as well.

“I’m quite comfortable about it. He will be our striker in the long run, but he will have some difficulties and concussions during the game. This is a normal thing in football.”