Paul Merson says Manchester United should’ve signed Julian Alvarez from Atletico Madrid instead of Benjamin Sesko in the summer window.
Atletico paid £82m to recruit Alvarez from Manchester City in August 2024, with the Argentine star scoring 33 goals in 63 games for the La Liga side.
Merson feels Alvarez would’ve been the perfect player to link up with summer signings Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha at Old Trafford.
Instead, United brought in Sesko from RB Leipzig in a £74m deal, with the Slovenian striker failing to score across his first six matches for the club.
‘Benjamin Sesko needs better service to score goals,’ Merson told Sportskeeda.
Get personalised updates on Manchester United every day
Wake up to find news on your club in your inbox every morning with Metro’s Football Newsletter.
Sign up to our newsletter and then select your team in the link so we can send you football news tailored to you.
‘Manchester United are not playing the kind of football that suits him. Bryan Mbeumo wants to score goals and Matheus Cunha likes to dribble.
‘I don’t expect either of them to drift wide and swing in crosses for Sesko. I honestly don’t know where Sesko will get his first goal from at the moment and it’s a massive worry for United.
‘They should have gone for a striker like Julian Alvarez, that type of player would have worked well with Mbeumo and Cunha.’
Rio Ferdinand, meanwhile, has urged Sesko to take ‘responsibility’ over his lack of chances and speak to his teammates to change the situation.
‘I think the responsibility goes to the striker as well [as other players],’ Ferdinand said on his YouTube podcast.
‘In today’s game there’s enough at your disposal technology-wise and clip-wise that you can get it in black and white on the iPad and say to your teammates, ‘You know when you got in that position, look where I am’.
‘Amad on the weekend [against Chelsea], I thought he played well, [he] was in a great position on the left-hand side and Sesko pulled off the defender in the 18-yard box and Amad just has to roll it to him.
‘It’s decision making in the final third that’s going to set him free or it isn’t, and he’s got to try and dictate to a lot of those players either through runs that make it so obvious or physically telling them after a game.
‘They’re the type of conversations he has to have because I know Ruud [van Nistelrooy] was having that.
‘I saw Ruud van Nistelrooy walk off the training field because Ronaldo did too many step overs and he wasn’t playing it when he wanted it.
‘You’ve got to find it from somewhere to make your teammates know, and that will be the making of him.’
Peter Schmeichel has claimed United did not need to sign Sesko from RB Leipzig this summer.
‘It’s nothing personal against Sesko – but we didn’t need [him],’ Schmeicheltold Premier League Productions. ‘We needed a centre midfield player who can control that bit of the pitch, and we needed a goalkeeper. Those were the issues we were struggling with and it’s not been addressed.’