As some of Europe’s most notable attacking talents flock to the Premier League this summer, RB Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko is the next name on the list, with Newcastle United and Manchester United in the mix to sign the forward with just weeks to go until transfer deadline day.
Sesko has inspired a bidding war between the two teams, each counting on the 22-year-old to fill a sore need in the rosters. Leipzig reportedly turned down a bid from Newcastle worth around $87 million plus $6 million in add-ons, according to The Athletic, and while they are likely to prepare a refreshed offer, United pitched the same $87 million transfer fee but with roughly $12 million if certain conditions are met. The back-and-forth aligns with Sesko’s reputation as one of the game’s up-and-coming strikers, especially so with 39 goals in two seasons with Leipzig.
The Slovenia international is perhaps the most promising young striker left on the market, an exciting prospect for a United team that has long needed a reliable goal scorer and a Newcastle side that seem destined to lose Alexander Isak to Liverpool. Sesko, though, is still understandably an unfinished product at 22 years old but that forces two very important questions – is he ready for a Premier League move, and will either Newcastle or United be the right landing spot for him?
Sesko’s raw talents
Sesko has two things that cannot really be taught in an attacker: pace and power, unsurprisingly making him a physical presence in and around penalty areas and in the air. He is also fairly comfortable with both feet and his head even if he prefers his right foot over anything else, but he clearly has a range that is covetable in any No. 9. He also has a decent record at Leipzig to show for it with 39 goals in 87 matches across all competitions.
How Sesko goes from a player with an impressive set of skills to a complete forward, though, is the big question ahead of both him and the club he spends the next few years at. There are definitely improvements to be made as it pertains to his goalscoring abilities – he averaged 0.43 expected goals per 90, falling in the 69th percentile for forwards in Europe’s top five leagues. The figure drops to the 50th percentile when considering non-penalty expected goals per 90, his average sitting at 0.35 in the last year. Compared to Liverpool newcomer Hugo Ekitike, who is just one year older and was also in the Bundesliga last year, and the gap is clear enough – Ekitike averaged 0.48 expected goals per 90 and landed in the 74th percentile, while his non-penalty expected goals average is at 0.6 and is in the 90th percentile
Those stats alone paint a picture of inconsistency but the good news for Sesko and a prospective new club is that these could be fixable problems. Some variety in his shot-taking could help, especially since he defaults to his power when he is struggling to find the right goalscoring opportunity.
Finding the right landing spot
For either Newcastle or Manchester United, a bet of Sesko is very specifically a wager on his potential. That means the onus is just as much on his new team as it is on the player himself to make the necessary adjustments to ensure Sesko actually realizes his potential, which is easier said than done.
The Red Devils, at this juncture, are an unknown quantity. Manager Ruben Amorim got the best out of new Arsenal recruit Viktor Gyokeres when they were colleagues at Sporting Lisbon, where he scored 97 goals in 102 games in two seasons, though preparing a young striker for life in the Premier League is potentially a different story. Sesko will likely have a happy home in Amorim’s preferred 3-4-3 system, which serves as the basis of United’s rebuild ahead of the new manager’s first full season in charge. There is room for Sesko to build a relationship with stalwart Bruno Fernandes, who has bore the brunt of the Red Devils’ attacking work for far too long, and Sesko would probably be the highlight in a summer of attacking incomings that include Matehus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo.
This is without considering the baggage that comes with United’s latest No. 9, though. Even though the club are more than a decade removed from their glory days, there is still an incredible amount of pressure that falls on anyone with even a hint of promise, potentially stunting their growth in the process. The latest victim of this phenomenon might be Rasmus Hojlund, who has yet to become the main man in United’s attack after two seasons, perhaps an unfair expectation of a player who arrived at Old Trafford at just 20 years old.
Newcastle may feel like a better fit for someone like Sesko in this case, even if they are fairly ambitious after qualifying the UEFA Champions League again and if filling Isak’s shoes is easier said than done. Manager Eddie Howe has a strong track record with diamonds in the rough, too – Anthony Gordon has surprisingly become a reliable attacker at Newcastle after modest returns at Everton, and the same is starting to come true with Jacob Murphy and Joe Willock. Ensuring Sesko lives up to his potential, especially if he has to fill Isak’s void, will likely be the biggest test of Howe’s abilities to get the best out of his players, though the pressures will definitely be different – and perhaps fairer – on both the player and the manager if Sesko has a slow start.
