Carrick Faces Pressure to Start Sesko as United's No.9
Carlo Ancelotti has quietly corrected one of the more baffling calls of the summer. Michael Carrick may now have to do the same.
Joao Pedro, outstanding for Chelsea last season and electric again at the start of this Premier League campaign, is back in the Brazil squad after his strange omission from the World Cup group. Brazil’s limp exit in the last 16, coupled with Pedro’s form at Stamford Bridge, left Ancelotti with nowhere to hide. The forward has been recalled for friendlies against Australia at the end of the month.
Neymar is missing, his controversial inclusion in the World Cup squad now a distant and uncomfortable memory. Matheus Cunha is out as well. The 27-year-old impressed in Qatar and in his debut campaign at Old Trafford, but his second season in Manchester has stalled badly.
Carrick has persisted with Cunha as his central striker, just as Brazil did in the summer and as United often did last term. It has not convinced everyone. One of the loudest voices belongs to a man who knows the position – and the club – inside out.
Scholes: “Watching United without a No.9 is a struggle”
Paul Scholes did not bother dressing it up. Reflecting on United’s win over Everton, in which Benjamin Sesko came off the bench to score, the former midfielder questioned Carrick’s attacking blueprint.
“I felt it was really timid against Everton,” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast. “There was no aggression, and Everton were there for the taking. There was so much space, and they never went for the throat.
“The centre-forward position is a bit of an issue because he is not playing Sesko. He is a focal point. It is very difficult to watch a Manchester United team without a centre forward.
“With Cunha, we don’t really know what he is, a No.10 or a wide player but he’s definitely not a No.9 and watching United without a No.9 is a struggle.”
The numbers from Sunday did little to help Cunha’s case. Sesko, a natural penalty-box presence, came on and did what centre-forwards are supposed to do: he decided the game.
Back in Slovenia, the reaction was even more brutal.
“A total zero”: Slovenian media pile in
Slovenian outlet Ekira, hardly a neutral source given Sesko’s status back home, did not hold back in its assessment of Cunha’s performance.
“Sesko flies on the shameful numbers of the Brazilian – fans firmly against Carrick,” its headline read.
Inside, the verdict got harsher. Cunha, they wrote, “completely failed, showing a catastrophic performance. A total zero.” The breakdown was damning: zero shots on target, zero assists, zero successful dribbles. He lost the ball 11 times and failed to win a single aerial duel.
For a player trusted as the tip of the attack, those statistics are unforgiving.
Yet what really stung, according to Ekira, was Carrick’s refusal to hand Sesko the starting role.
“Carrick insisting that Sesko is still more effective on the bench, while the Brazilian plays up front, is driving fans crazy. Sesko has to play from the first minute, they’re yelling.”
The pressure is no longer just tactical. It is emotional, political, national. In Slovenia, Sesko is the standard-bearer. At United, he is increasingly seen as the obvious solution.
Carrick’s call ahead of Champions League return
Carrick’s wide options are largely settled. Bryan Mbeumo has nailed down the right flank. On the left, Marcus Rashford is playing like a man on a mission back at his boyhood club, desperate to reassert himself as United’s attacking talisman.
That leaves the central role as the one live debate.
If Sesko comes back into the starting XI, Cunha will almost certainly be the casualty. The Brazilian has already been overlooked by Ancelotti; a drop to the bench at Old Trafford ahead of United’s Champions League clash with Sabah on Thursday would complete a bruising 48 hours for a player whose status for both club and country suddenly looks fragile.
Ancelotti has already admitted his mistake with Joao Pedro. Carrick now stands at a similar crossroads. Does he double down on Cunha, or hand the No.9 shirt – in all but name – to the striker everyone else seems to be waiting for?
