Benjamin Sesko came off the bench to rescue a point for Man Utd as they maintained their unbeaten record under Michael Carrick.
Michael Carrick believes Benjamin Sesko is ready to go to another level after praising the impact he made in rescuing a point for Manchester United at West Ham. The 22-year-old is yet to start any of Carrick’s five games in charge but scored a decisive injury-time goal for the second time in three games, with his instinctive finish in the 96th minute securing a point after Tomas Soucek had opened the scoring.
Sesko has two goals in 61 minutes of football under Carrick and has five goals in his last six games, only two of which have been starts, and despite his lack of action he looks in a rich vein of form at the moment.
The £73million striker was unfortunate not to start at the London Stadium and Carrick admitted he could have brought him on earlier than the 69th minute, with United in need of a focal point to their attack, but when he did come on he proved to be worth the wait.
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“It’s always the balance. I think the boys have done fantastically well who have played as well,” said Carrick. “That’s the importance of the whole group and importance of the squad and I’ve said it to them after every game.
“Leny’s come on and made a big difference for us tonight in big moments and then Ben scored again. Ben’s doing a lot work. He’s in a good place, he’s ready to kick on, it’s just managing the balance.
“We could have changed things a little bit earlier. That’s obviously the decision we’re always trying to make and we were actually having a bit of a spell in the game at that point where we thought we might come back into it, but when Ben came on the pitch he made a big difference.”
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Sesko took his goal brilliantly, producing a clever finish to make Bryan Mbeumo’s cross look better than it was and loop the ball over Hammers goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.
Carrick has referenced the quality of his finishing in training and is delighted with the steps the young striker is taking in his first season at Old Trafford.
“It’s an unbelievable finish from the angle to generate that, to get it on target, to finish it,” he said. “It’s some goal from him. He’s capable of that, Ben. He’s done it over time. It’s not that he’s just suddenly burst on the scene.
“He’s been doing it, he’s proven that he can score goals as well. He’s been doing it in training for us as well. It’s not surprising, to be honest. I think that’s what he does, it’s what he’s good at. But certainly to actually do it and to feel it. He did it with the last one [against Tottenham], tonight, a little bit different with the emotion of the game, but certainly important and a big moment for him and us.”
Carrick opted to keep faith with the same team that had beaten Fulham and Tottenham, but a fluid attack failed to fire in the capital, although that flexibility was helpful in the end as he threw players on to try and make the difference.
“There’s a little bit on different games as well as situations in games and how you want to attack, where the space is or what the game looks like,” he said. “We probably didn’t quite get the balance right, if we’re honest, for the first part of the game
“Which happens, teams are allowed to stop you from scoring, but we kept going and mixed things up, and because we have got that flexibility, I think it certainly helps to find different solutions.”
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