Man Utd’s foolish mistake over Benjamin Sesko had two critical warning signs Ineos ignored

Breaking down where it all went wrong with Manchester United over Benjamin Sesko.

Benjamin Sesko will be out of action until January after the latest medical update over the Slovenian striker.

It is a major blow to Manchester United’s season, irrespective of which head coach will be in the dugout by the time the goalscorer eventually returns.

The injury piles the pressure on under-fire technical director Jason Wilcox, with Manchester United’s squad now lacking goalscoring options.

It was a clear mistake not to sign a striker in the transfer window – and there are absolutely no excuses. Below we will break down the three warning signs Manchester United ignored over Benjamin Sesko.

#1 Rasmus Hojlund’s two-year spell

Manchester United bought a young striker in 2023, and failed to provide him with any support. Rasmus Hojlund was asked to lead the line on his own.

While Hojlund was able to stay healthy, the mental pressure of leading the line for United took it’s toll. His form suffered badly in his second season, and there was no hiding place.

When Ineos bought Sesko in 2025, instead of keeping Sesko and Hojlund to help each other out, they sold the Danish striker.

Sesko’s debut year ended up being a similar carbon copy to Hojlund’s. A long stretch without a goal in the first half, before a hot streak in the second part of the season. They would both have been better off if they had help from each other.

Or if United did not like the combination, and wanted to take the £40 million fee from Napoli, they should have bought a veteran striker to help out Sesko.

Just like Hojlund would have benefited from a veteran presence, Sesko would have been helped too by the presence of a Premier League proven forward who knew the league and could teach him, while sharing the game time.

Having seen United fail to explore this with Hojlund – a strategy set in place in 2023 before Ineos took over – they repeated the exact same error with Sesko.

#2 Sesko fails to play single pre-season game

Benjamin Sesko missed the final three games of last season with an injury and was kept out of Slovenia’s June international fixtures. There was not anything immediately innocuous about that.

But when Sesko was not declared fit to even take part in pre-season training at the start of July, alarm bells should have been ringing.

Sesko did not play in any of the club’s six pre-season games. He did not start the Premier League opener against Hull, although was named on the bench.

United badly lacked a physical presence in the Hull defeat, which should have underlined the concerns about Sesko’s fitness.

Yes, he had returned to make the matchday squad, but was he really going to hold up to playing two matches per week in all competitions?

Ineos took an unacceptable gamble by failing to provide cover for Sesko.

They took the view that Joshua Zirkzee, Marcus Rashford, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha could cover between them. While there is a good volume of cover there, none of these players are centre-forwards.

Given the possibility that one setback for Sesko could leave him out for several weeks, it was negligent not to sign any cover.