- 1 week ago
The latest transfer saga of the summer is over, as Manchester United have secured Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig. The Slovenian international arrives for an eye-watering £74m + add ons, and joins Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo in Ruben Amorim's new-look attack. But at such a young age, with so much development still to do, have the club set him up to be an almighty flop?
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, I am Adam Cleary and Benjamin Sesko is going to
00:06Manchester United and everybody is going to tell you that's a bit of a gamble.
00:12Dropping that much money on a player who's that young and still has that much to prove is obviously fraught
00:18with risk, but what they are buying is potentially one of the most complete and terrifying centre forwards in world
00:28football.
00:30Potentially.
00:33Right, now just to start, for those keeping score, this is now the sixth time this summer I have started
00:39prepping a video for a player who I thought was going to Newcastle and then had to pivot it because
00:44he went to another club.
00:45Mateus Cunha, Giano Pedro, Brian Umbermo, James Trafford, Hugo Eketike and now Benjamin Sesko.
00:53I'm fine, I'm so fine, it's totally, it's great, I'm having a good time.
00:57Alright, so if you are not currently a season ticket holder in the Saxony region, where Leipzig is, look it
01:04up, what can I tell you about him?
01:0622 years old, Slovenian, hits double figures every season of his senior career and he does all the things that
01:13deep down you love to see in a centre forward.
01:17He is explosive when running at an opposition back line, he can bully defenders in physical duels, he towers above
01:25them to score goals with his head and when he hits the ball, he hits it like it owes him
01:32fucking money.
01:33And like, as a series of headlines for a centre forward, that's really all you want, isn't it? The rest
01:39is just like, details.
01:41However, however, however, the caveat that is going to run throughout this video and the reason why we called the
01:48last one why he's perfect and why he's not,
01:51is because while Benjamin Sesko can do it all, he currently does not do it all consistently.
01:59This is a player who is absolutely capable of getting to that Haaland, Kane, Isak sort of level, but is
02:06currently some ways of being there, but is at least going in the right direction.
02:12And I'll show you what I mean statistically here before letting you see it in action.
02:17Right, Sesko's output for his age is really good.
02:20I think 21 goals in all competitions last season, 18 the two years before.
02:24This is really impressive for a 22-year-old at Germany's like 4th or 5th best club.
02:32They finished 7th last year, 3rd the year before, so just, they're in that bracket below like Bayern, Dortmund and
02:38Leverkusen.
02:39Remember the rest, but they're quite good.
02:40But his numbers underneath those goals are a bit trickier to explain.
02:44Like in terms of his shot output, conversion, all the stuff recruitment teams will really want to see, he's a
02:51little bit more like slightly above average.
02:54On target percentage is good, goals per shot is respectable, and the real number, the quote-unquote experts will be
03:02looking at, the goals minus XG, that is positive.
03:05So that's good.
03:06Basically, this here is the mathematical measure of, is he at least taking the chances relative to what is being
03:13created for him, or is he wasteful?
03:17And according to this number here, Benjamin Sesko is reasonably reliable in front of goal.
03:22But this is where the data can only take you so far, because this number here, when you look at
03:29his goals, is being artificially pumped up by, how can I put this?
03:36Because, shit pingers, the man has a cannon on him that last season got him three goals from 20, 25
03:44and 30 yards, which not insignificantly reframes that number.
03:50Like this is an incredibly unscientific way to do it, but it's also quite fun, right?
03:54This optograph shows you all his shots and all his goals from last season.
03:58The red dots are the ones that went in, you'll see they're dotted about.
04:02The blue ones are just the ones that were chances, either saved or missed.
04:06And the bigger the circle, the better the chance was.
04:10And if we look, there are a load of them within about 10 yards of the goal here, that you
04:15really should be converting more often than not.
04:18And that's why people talk about Sesko in terms of his potential, as opposed to his ability right now.
04:23Like, just imagine this was the graph for Kane, for Haaland, Lewandowski, Letaro, Martinez, Isak, Jokeres, Turam, any of those
04:30sort of players.
04:31A lot more of these would be red than would be blue.
04:35But crucially, though, none of the players I've just mentioned there are 22 years old.
04:41So this year is not a reason to not buy him.
04:45It's just something you have to keep in mind in terms of his development.
04:48Development?
04:49Development.
04:50That's a word.
04:51If you do.
04:52And just to be totally honest with you, right, because bear in mind, my football club was looking to spend
04:57this much money on him.
04:59That's pretty much where my concerns end.
05:03Like, everything else you're going to want him to do, he already does pretty well.
05:08Like, where you'd normally expect a player of his age and experience to struggle is in his work outside the
05:14box, in his link-up play.
05:15But if we look at his heat map from last season, you'll see he's really comfortable coming off the front
05:21line, getting into the channels, holding up the ball in the final third.
05:24And his numbers here are already at a pretty top level.
05:28He gets really involved in the middle of the pitch.
05:30He takes players on better than almost any forwards in Europe.
05:33He carries it consistently and into dangerous areas.
05:37And best of all, when you look at these numbers and you compare them to last season, you see clear,
05:45clear progression there.
05:47In almost every single metric that matters, he has improved noticeably in the last 12 months.
05:53And even better, for Manchester United specifically, who just never felt like they had a reliable crossing option when they
06:00had the ball out wide,
06:01or even just the ability to go long from the back and have it stick, he's already, like, the most
06:07dominant aerial forwards in Europe.
06:10He can score from crosses.
06:11And Man United ranked joint bottom last season for headed goals.
06:15Set pieces weren't good.
06:17Open play crosses never had a reliable target.
06:19He opens up an entirely new attacking avenue for them simply by, like, being there.
06:26But, of course, speaking of being there, because you simply can't mention Manchester United without getting up to your arse
06:33in system chat,
06:34is he one of the much mythologised, mythologised, I'm not sure what the word is, players who will fit the
06:423-4-2-1 system?
06:44Well, again, just like everything else, there is a small cause for concern, but it is largely quite good news.
06:50So, first off, and if you are bored of hearing this, then think about how bored I am of saying
06:55this, right?
06:55Ruben Amorim only really has the Manchester United job because he put Sporting Lisbon in this shape,
07:01told Victor Jokerez to just fucking stay there, then they made 100 chances for him, and he scored, like, 97.
07:08And this is a classic Victor Jokerez at Sporting Lisbon heat map.
07:14I'm not even entirely sure which game it was.
07:16Now, AVS, is that a team he scored, like, two goals or a hat-trick that day?
07:21Because he scored, like, two goals or a hat-trick every single game.
07:23But this is how he played.
07:25You just stay at the very top of the pitch, lad, between the width of the goals, and we will
07:29all do the rest.
07:31When those crosses come in, he's dead centre trying to take them.
07:34When he does have to drop off, it's dead centre so he can spin in behind.
07:37And when they do manage to find him with the ball, his only job is get your chances away.
07:43Have a go.
07:44And for this goal, it's all pretty obvious he is put through.
07:46It's just a matter of whether or not he can finish.
07:49But for the second one, don't overthink it.
07:52You're in a reasonably good position.
07:53Just get a shot away and see if it comes off.
07:56Now, the thing is, Benjamin Sesko could do this sort of job for a team up front.
08:02But as we discussed with his finishing numbers, you would effectively be asking him to make 80% of his
08:07role in the side,
08:09reliant upon possibly the weakest aspect of his game.
08:12So it's not a great fit.
08:14However, how Ruben Amorim's Sporting Lisbon played, you can see them all here,
08:19is very different from how Ruben Amorim's Manchester United is going to play.
08:25By signing Mateus Cunha and Bryant Ambermo, you now have two direct goal-scoring threats in these 10 positions
08:32in a way that Sporting Lisbon never did.
08:36So a striker, and we're just going to go back to his heat map here,
08:39that can play the channels, that can drop in, that can create, that can occupy centre-backs
08:44through the power of both physical bothering and mental anxiety,
08:49is all of a sudden really good in this system.
08:52And if you look, there's obviously box threat there, like spent half the bloody season in the thing,
08:57but he was also vital to the wider way that Leipzig were playing.
09:01So now what you've got is a rotational threat between these three players
09:06that doesn't just take a lot of the goal-scoring pressure off your younger centre-forward,
09:11but actively opens up the spaces and the opportunities for the other number 10s.
09:17And if you really wish to get excited, Mr. or Mrs. Manchester United fan, let me show you this.
09:25RB Leipzig played in a number of different systems last season,
09:28but this was a pretty common 4-4-2, and it's what they used in a lot of the big
09:33games.
09:33But how it worked, in reality, and you may have seen this in our Xavi Siemens video,
09:38was that he would float into this left-hand half space.
09:41The left-back, Rahm, I think his name is, would provide all the width down this side.
09:46The centre-forward would sort of come over here.
09:48The other centre-forward would sort of drop into this half space,
09:51and you had Baku stretching down the right-hand side.
09:54Then, obviously, of course, these three would just shuffle over.
09:58Now, stop me if this system looks loosely familiar to you.
10:04A back three, an attacking front five, partly comprised of defenders, by the way,
10:09and two 10s behind a centre-forward.
10:12The best part is, Benjamin Sesko had as many games as the focal point in this front five,
10:17as he did as one of the 10s working in the half space.
10:21So good is his link play, so he doesn't even necessarily have to be the centre-forward all the time.
10:28And one thing I think he does immediately fix for Manchester United, right,
10:33is how trapped they often felt on the ball.
10:37And I promise I'm not just bringing Newcastle into this to make myself feel better.
10:42I mean, even though it probably will, right, but this goal did highlight for me a lot
10:46of what was wrong with Amarim's football last season, right?
10:49It's the fourth goal at St. James' Park.
10:51The goalie's got it at the back.
10:53All of his short options are cut off, and he is about to give this away to Joe Linton
10:58in an attempt to deftly land the ball around here so that Hoyland can trap it on the deck.
11:06He's not going to fire it into him and make him do the work.
11:09He goes low with it to give him the best chance of controlling it.
11:12Now, obviously, it's too low, and they give it away, and they concede.
11:15But if you had any belief in his centre-forward whatsoever, he would go hard.
11:19He would go high.
11:20He would trust him to fight off Fabian Scherr, to bring it down in this space,
11:25get turned, and launch them up the field.
11:28But neither you nor I nor Bayern D, I can never, ever say his name properly,
11:35have any faith whatsoever in Rasmus Hoyland to do that.
11:39He ain't that guy.
11:40You're not that guy, pal.
11:41Trust me.
11:41You're not that guy.
11:43Now watch this clip for Leipzig against Wolfsburg, right?
11:46The pressure is on, just like it was with Newcastle.
11:49The ball out is not good or precise, but it's in his general vicinity,
11:54and that's all you need.
11:55He's combative.
11:56He controls it excellently.
11:58His teammates manage to get up and support him.
11:59And crucially, when he releases it, it is not backwards.
12:04He moves them further up the pitch with it.
12:06Now, again, still a lot of caveats to Benjamin Sesko,
12:09like his decision-making can leave a lot to be desired at times.
12:12You go back to that shot map, every single one of these blue dots
12:16will have had his teammates throwing their arms up in the air
12:18or rolling their eyes at him.
12:20But that is, again, something he can work on.
12:22He's also going to get a bit of a rude awakening
12:24if he thinks this stat here about his aerial dominance
12:27is going to remain consistent in his majesty's brutalist Premier League.
12:33But again, it's a good starting point to work from.
12:36And just like final point here, right?
12:38I think this sum of money for a player with this much developing still to do
12:43is absolutely absurd, especially when if I was Man United,
12:47I would see the priority as being in the central midfield area.
12:51But, and I said this about him going to Arsenal,
12:54I said this about him going to Newcastle,
12:56I don't care about the money.
12:58It's not, I'm not spending it, right?
13:00I think he is tons, tons of fun as a footballer.
13:04And if he signed for your club, which he hasn't for mine,
13:09I'm totally fine.
13:10You should be really excited about that.
13:11I think just don't expect too much too soon.
13:14But the bar is there.
13:17He can do whatever he wants if he just does it.
13:21So yes, there you go, Manchester United fans.
13:22Who better than tell you what you've just bought
13:25than a Newcastle fan who's absolutely devastated about the fact.
13:29Please let us know what you think about Benjamin Seska.
13:31What are you excited about?
13:32And would you rather have had a central midfielder?
13:34All of it, welcome in the comments below.
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13:39Subscribing is really good because we're going to make loads of videos.
13:41The Premier League's coming back.
13:42You don't want to miss those.
13:43Got Arsenal on the first weekend, have you?
13:45Hmm, might be talking about this again really soon.
13:49And you can now get ACFC, of course, on TikTok and Instagram.
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13:54If there is, we're on there.
13:56You can get me across all the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
14:00And that's the end of the video.
14:03I've seen Newcastle have been linked with Malik Tior today.
14:05So about to go and prep a video on why he's going to be such a revelation for Chelsea.
14:10Goodbye.
14:10Goodbye.
14:11Goodbye.
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