Rio Ferdinand believes that Manchester United’s new signing Benjamin Šeško must make one message extremely clear to his teammates.
Manchester United entered the summer transfer window in need of securing a new striker and they eventually decided to bring in Benjamin Šeško from RB Leipzig.
Šeško, 22, had been on the club’s radar for a number of years and was rated as one of the best young centre-forwards in the European game.
His start at Old Trafford has been difficult, with three starts to his name so far, and the striker is yet to find the back of the net.
Šeško’s latest appearance against Chelsea saw him make way at half-time following Casemiro’s red card late in the first-half.
Ferdinand: Šeško must make message clear to United teammates
Despite not finding the back of the net yet, Šeško has shown some promising signs. His aerial ability looks like it can be extremely useful – as shown for Robert Sanchez’s red card – and he also seems to have good movement in the box.
But United aren’t really playing to his strengths yet. The crosses aren’t coming in at the right times and players are also missing his movements in and around the penalty area.
Rio Ferdinand believes that the 22-year-old has to take control of the situation and communicate to teammates off the pitch about his runs and where he will be in the box.
This is something that world-class strikers like Ruud van Nistelrooy used to do at Old Trafford and Ferdinand suggests this could be the ‘making of’ Šeško if he does the same.
Speaking about Šeško’s lack of chances on his podcast, Ferdinand said: “I think the responsibility goes to the striker as well, 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, I thought he played well, was in a great position on the left-hand side and Šeško 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.”
Šeško’s freakish aerial ability will help him
United could have brought in an experienced head through the middle at Old Trafford instead of Šeško but it was never going to be easy for them. Until the team improves as a whole, the striker won’t be getting loads of chances.
The one benefit Šeško has is that he has freakish ability in the air, and that does mean that there’s always at least one clear way to create for him.
Rasmus Højlund’s struggles came because there were no clear goals that he was able to score against Premier League opposition. Šeško, on the other hand, can simply demand that his team get dangerous crosses into him.
That looks like it’ll be the best chance of giving the young striker opportunities inside the box before United become more controlling as an attacking unit.
Make sure to follow UtdDistrict on X, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok to never miss out on any of our Manchester United content. Our podcast, What the Devil?, is streamed live every Thursday at 12:30 pm (BST) on the United View YouTube channel.