'He's miles off it' - Gary Neville takes aim at 'awkward' Man Utd summer signing after Nottingham Forest draw

Neville was unimpressed with Benjamin Sesko, who was United's most expensive signing of last summer at £74m ($97m). The Slovenian had three efforts on goal against Forest but couldn't hit the target with any of them. He has only scored twice since his big-money move from RB Leipzig, having been brought in as a supposed upgrade on Rasmus Hojlund, who was sent out on loan to Napoli and is expected to make a permanent move to the Serie A champions as soon as January.

And he contrasted Sesko's struggles with Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha's positive starts since joining the club from Brentford and Wolves respectively.

"I’m no further forward with him, the jury’s still out," Neville said on NBC Sports. "He’s miles off it compared to the other forwards United brought in, like Cunha and Mbeumo. He looks awkward, his touch was off a few times when balls went over the top. For £80m [sic], yes he’s young and still settling but you want to see something more."

Gary Lineker was a little more generous with Sesko than Neville when he analysed United's recruitment over the summer on 'The Rest is Football' podcast. "One thing I would say is that their recruitment for the first time in some time looks pretty good. Cunha looks a really good player and Mbeumo looks a really good player," he said. "Sesko I think might show something, I think he is promising, so I think it has been better recruitment, but time will tell on that as well."

Lineker added on United's run of three wins and one draw since losing at Brentford: "I would say they are slightly better. I think they are moving in the right direction. I still don’t think overall they have the players that suit the way Amorim plays.While they have a little bit of a good run, and a revival, it is hard to envisage that they will sustain it for a long period but you have got to remember, where they were last season, 15th in the league or something, you are not going to suddenly jump up to the top." 

Sesko has a lot of work to do to win round United fans and sceptical pundits such as Neville. Indeed, there was some uncertainty about whether he would be a big upgrade on Hojlund given the fact that he seemed a similar profile of player: a young striker with potential but with only two years of experience in Europe's top five leagues and no track record in the Premier League.

The Slovenian was marginally more experienced than Hojlund, with 27 goals for Leipzig in two seasons in the Bundesliga compared to Hojlund scoring nine times in one season in Serie A. Hojlund waited four months to finally score his first Premier League goal with United, ending his debut campaign with 10 strikes. His second season at Old Trafford was a huge disappointment as he netted only four times in the league although the Dane pointed out that few United players could be happy with their performances last season.

Now that United's overall displays are improving along with their results, Sesko needs to rise to the level of Cunha and Mbeumo and start raising his goal count. United's next fixture away to Tottenham on Saturday is a good opportunity for him to do so as Spurs are low on confidence after losing their last two games to Newcastle and Chelsea, with supporters beginning to show discontent towards coach Thomas Frank.