[sullydnl]

A key piece of context for this transfer is that we know who the "guaranteed goals", "PL proven", "easily has 3+ years left in him", "manager's preferred choice" alternative would have been.

Ollie Watkins. Currently on zero goals for the season, having played over two full 90's more than Sesko. And getting these sort of reviews from Villa fans:

if he's not missing sitters from 4 yards out, he can't even take a decent penalty. Hasn't offered us anything at all for months. Can we find anyone daft enough to give us a good fee for him in January? Just useless. Can't score, can't pass and can't even get on the ball anymore.

When out of form and low in confidence he not only contributes nothing but is actively the oppos best player because any chances that come his way are missed.

His Villa career is going to end like Gabby's.

He has done well to get to this level as a striker because that isn’t his natural position and he isn’t a natural goalscorer.

He is a problem

Just don't rate him. At all.

I'd say it's his last season with us. He'll either want to go anyway, or we will sell him. A better more aggressive striker, playing that high line will win us trophies, I have no doubt.

He is lucky we have no alternative. A Duran or Rashford type and he would be no where near the team at the moment.

This is just Watkins. When he's being spoon fed chances he'll score goals, but we can't rely on a striker scoring chances that anyone will score. We need him to at least add something.

I don't think Malen was particularly outstanding yesterday, but the flow of the game was night and day when he went off and Watkins came on.

Just a technically poor player. His actual ball striking is just random number generator.

It's easy to say "we needed a striker who can come in and score goals straight away". But as we saw in the summer, a lot of teams were looking for and struggling to find the same.

Add in players who reportedly rejected us for other teams (Gyokeres, Ekitike, Delap) or we were never going to get (Isak), and your options come down to that Sesko/Watkins level. It's not like we didn't try for alternatives, but you can't make players come here.

Maybe Watkins will come good this season and maybe Sesko will be a long term flop. But right now, I don't feel particularly uncomfortable with the choice we made in backing the younger long term option. Because none of these players guarantee goals.

And if that means Sesko sitting on the bench sometimes in favour of a Cunha/Mbeumo/Mount front three, that's fine. I'll judge that call on how well the chosen front three play.

 

[FaceTheMusic]

I'm a huge fan of his and I'm sure he'll start scoring soon enough. Just need to lump some crosses in to the box to get him off the mark!

 

[DJ_21]

Don't think it's any secret that Amorim wanted Watkins and it was Vivell who pushed for Sessko. Amorim is looking at the here and now, whereas Vivell is looking long term. But, we are here now, and we have to make it work. I say, let's give Sessko a chance in a front 3 with Cunha and Mbuemo. None of this subbing off at 60-70 mins, give all 3 a chance over 90 for a run of games. Problem is, with Mount back, Amorim seems to always want him in his first 11. Dropping Sessko now would be bad for his confidence and merely give his detractors more ammo.

What as Watkins done so far this season?

 

[harms]

xG merchant!

Another decent, functional performance without showing anything extraordinary yet. Some good hold up play, and, of course, finally, his first goal scored through sheer perseverance. Enough to get MotM considering how the others have played.

 

[Ekeke]

Got his first goal and looked our most likely to score, getting a few chances to get shots away which is progress from the previous matches where he wasnt our player getting the chances to shoot

 

[Ludens the Red]

One thing about him that is worrying is his lack of tenacity/pressing. He seems to play at walking pace off the ball. He’s not able to press with any regularity and do those little nicks off defenders.

I don’t think the system helps him at all but he should be able to press a lot better. He’s basically a non entity when teams are playing out the back.

 

[DJ_21]

Should have gone to Newcastle lad

 

[Andersons Dietician]

There were large periods where he was non existent or would play a poor pass but he shows in glimpses that he has decent hold up. Just a worry again that here we have another striker we are struggling to get involved.

 

[Reyoji-Utd]

He is still a work in progress as posters been saying and we have to see it as that simply. He got all the criterials to be the forward we envision, just needa him to them together. However, the formation just not suit him or any foward at all. We simply cant play football or control the game even 1 game.

 

[Erics_Collar]

Sad to see a promising young lad throw his career away like that chasing a big payday.

We're pretty much the European equivalent of moving to Saudi, except Sesko is legally allowed to drown his sorrows afterwards here.

 

[Bobski]

His work with ball at feet is not great at the moment, very untidy on the ball, which is disappointing given it was also the main issue I had with Hojlund.

He has much better presence in the box in terms of getting on things and his aerial power has been the go to to get us up the pitch but plenty to work on.

 

[Kush]

Only positive from today's match is that he got a goal. Was poor with his passing but I do see potential in him. For such a big man, he has a good touch and ability to get out of tough spots and link play.

Lack of intensity is obviously a major concern but I think it's to be understood coming into PL. People are being overcritical here, we have a shocking system in place at the moment which is handicapping entire team both in attack and defence. Nobody is standing out.

 

[ti vu]

Glad he opened his account. I still won’t point finger at him for going missing during game. We’re just toothless and pedestrian as a whole too often under Amorim.

 

[L1nk]

If you sign Cunha, Mbeumo, and Sesko, and none of them look threatening, i'm sorry to say but it isn't their fault. I'm not gonna judge this guy until we get a manager in that can actually utilise him and the other forwards we just spent millions on.

 

[buckooo1978]

completely isolated again.

Cant remember anything from him after his goal

being failed by the system/tactics

 

[Name Changed]

It's a start. In general, he seems totally isolated. And we don't play to his strengths.

 

[Irwin99]

Pleased he got a goal at least.

 

[Dan_F]

Happy he got the goal to keep the wolves at bay for a week. Watching the way that two of the best PL players from last year play in this system, it’s hard to seriously criticise a 22 year old in his first few premier league games. It’s a mess.

 

[Frank White]

Only took 3 attempts from 5 feet out, do them shots get individually added to are Xg? If so we'll be dominating the Xg league this week.

 

[Red & White]

Pleased for him to get that first goal. We’re a sinking ship, mind, so probably a loss for him in the long run, unfortunately.

 

[Rockets Redglare]

If you sign Cunha, Mbeumo, and Sesko, and none of them look threatening, i'm sorry to say but it isn't their fault. I'm not gonna judge this guy until we get a manager in that can actually utilise him and the other forwards we just spent millions on.

Exactly how I feel as well. Reminds me of how the players looked completely at a loss under Jose then started absolutely flying once Ole took over.

 

[FujiVice]

Scored due to nothing but sheer determination. Nothing to do with how we play. We never look for him, the poor guy is just wandering around. You cant judge him in this system. Nobody plays well. Its dreadful

 

[siw2007]

Happy that he got his 1st goal, he had a pretty decent first half. Completely anonymous in the 2nd half, but the team was playing badly and couldn’t create an attack so not surprised.

 

[Only]

Elite goal scorers for top clubs usually have at least one of these (the more they have, the better they are for longer):

A borderline irritating/embarrassing appetite for goals:
Kane swearing on his daughter's life, Lewandowski blaming his teammates for not helping him become top scorer in the final game week of 2016/17, Haaland clearly is obsessed with scoring, as is Mbappe who shoots from anywhere, to give a few current elite examples.

Otherworldy technique and/or reading of the game:
Benzema, Henry: Both were examples of players who would stamp their personality into a team performance but weren't obsessed with being top scorer necessarily. Firminho, Drogba, van Persie, Zlatan and many others.

Natural finisher:
Actually a relatively short list.

A nasty streak:
Aguero, Rooney, Suarez, van Persie wouldn't necessarily be thought of as the dirtiest, but they all had that nasty streak required to impose themselves. Even someone not considered elite (but with 100+ PL goals), like Vardy. This is almost a non-negiotable. It doesn't mean kicking out at people on the pitch (although it sometimes can); it means being a dogged bugger on the pitch.

Sesko's got none of those traits to be an elite striker. At best (with development) Dzeko's level, in my opinion.
He's just seems like a nice guy who plays football nicely, but lacks that aggression or ability to impose himself. He's young, but you don't just become a more aggressive player out of nowhere. It just doesn't seem in his nature unfortunately.

 

[RuudTom83]

The only players in the 11 that get on the ball are the CB’s and WB’s.

Everyone else is a rushed clusterfeck of a watch. It makes any real analysis pointless.

 

[Winrar]

Didn't really get in the game but so did the rest of our players. Glad to see him open his account fairly early on to get that monkey off his back at least.

 

[Martinez4midfield]

Did he touch the ball in the second half? How did Gyokeres score so many in this system with this manager? Becoming disturbingly clear the gulf in talent between the top 3 Portuguese sides and the rest of the league is immense.

In Portugal it probably looks like a 325 super attacking, with the extra CB even joining the attack. I'm England vs better competition who can beat the press it turns into 523 goofball counter attacking.

 

[Aleryan]

Sesko is amazing. He didn't even celebrate even after scoring his first goal for united. What a player.

 

[Hammondo]

Did he touch the ball in the second half? How did Gyokeres score so many in this system with this manager? Becoming disturbingly clear the gulf in talent between the top 3 Portuguese sides and the rest of the league is immense.

In Portugal it probably looks like a 325 super attacking, with the extra CB even joining the attack. I'm England vs better competition who can beat the press it turns into 523 goofball counter attacking.

Better movement off the ball and a better passers.

 

[Adnan]

Did he touch the ball in the second half? How did Gyokeres score so many in this system with this manager? Becoming disturbingly clear the gulf in talent between the top 3 Portuguese sides and the rest of the league is immense.

In Portugal it probably looks like a 325 super attacking, with the extra CB even joining the attack. I'm England vs better competition who can beat the press it turns into 523 goofball counter attacking.

Sporting Club had better wingbacks along with a CB and midfield dynamic that could control the game both ways. The system isn't the problem if you know how to recruit for such a system within the formation the coach looks to implement.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

Got a goal (tried pretty hard not to tbf). Hopefully keep the social media masses off his back for a while.

We should try putting a couple of decent balls into the box one day. Never know what will happen.

 

[Pickle85]

Got a goal (tried pretty hard not to tbf). Hopefully keep the social media masses off his back for a while.

We should try putting a couple of decent balls into the box one day. Never know what will happen.

It's crazy how inaccurate our balls into the box were today.

 

[OverratedOpinion]

It's crazy how inaccurate our balls into the box were today.

Even the goal came from a terrible cross and weak keeping.

 

[Donut]

I thought he was actually really good the few times he touched the ball…

 

[Devil81]

Give him time, those saying he was invisible in the second half. We barely laid a glove on them for him to be active.

 

[The_Midfielder]

It's crazy how inaccurate our balls into the box were today.

Dalot. 1 word.

 

[Berbasbullet]

I thought he was actually really good the few times he touched the ball…

He was! Need to get him on the ball more

 

[Red00012]

Barely noticed he was playing bar his goal. Not his fault though

 

[adamwest]

I thought he was actually really good the few times he touched the ball…

Agreed.

 

[Sylar]

It's hard to see what his potential is with this formation. Hard to see whether he can cope with being a United player or whether he is being let down by the set up

I think most strikers would suffer the same with us