Benjamin Šeško is starting to find his feet in a Manchester United shirt after a difficult start to life in England, and the proof is in the pudding.
The Slovenian international joined Manchester United from RB Leipzig in the summer of last year, for a fee of £74 million.
He had to endure heavy criticism early on, having only netted twice in his first five months at the club.
Football, like everything else, has entered a world where instant results are a requirement.
But having again scored the winner against Everton on Monday, that is now six goals in his last seven games, he is fine from and it certainly gives Michael Carrick something to think about for their next Premier League game against Crystal Palace.
Šeško is receiving more service
Under Rúben Amorim, the service provided to Benjamin Šeško was limited; he often had to feed off scraps or engineer his own chances.
But since Amorim’s abrupt sacking at the turn of the year, Šeško’s fortunes have changed. Against Burnley at Turf Moor, Bruno Fernandes returned to his favoured No.10 position and provided an assist for Šeško, who walked away with a brace.
According to Sky Sports’ David Reed, in that game alone, his United teammates fed him the ball 53.3% of the time. Under Amorim’s management, it was down at 30.9%. The trend of deliberately looking for the striker has continued.
It helps that the managers, since Amorim, have been first Darren Fletcher and now Carrick: two players who learned under the tutelage of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Their former teammate, Robin van Persie, said: “He [Sir Alex Ferguson] said to Carrick, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney and Shinji Kagawa, if you cannot find Robin, you will not play.” Perhaps that is something that they have taken into their management.
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Šeško thriving off pressure
In recent games, United’s No.30 has found himself as an impact substitute. He still feels incredibly valued, though, and it is showing.
Carrick seems to excel when it comes to managing the squad. Kobbie Mainoo and Šeško are examples of that.
The shirt looked like it weighed heavily on the centre-forward’s shoulders, but not anymore. When talking about pressure amid a lack of minutes from a starting position, he said: “I take it as a privilege. It’s something that has [to be there] if you want to play at the highest level, and it’s about accepting it and not really caring about it.
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“It’s more about me showing up when it’s important, no matter how many minutes I’m getting, I’m focusing on delivering and trying to help the team secure the wins.
“I’m not even thinking about ‘I have to start, I have to start.’ If I get the next minutes, five minutes, I’m going to use them and for me and it’s just about trying to enjoy and delivering for the team.”
Šeško’s mentality is an underrated facet of his game. It is what sets him apart from those who have led the line in recent seasons.
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