Amorim: Sesko is our striker for long term

Sesko arrived from German side RB Leipzig on the weekend before the start of our Premier League season and has since been adapting to playing his football in a league that he himself has called “quicker” than the Bundesliga.

While finding his feet, the 22-year-old has scored twice in 10 top-flight appearances and, in the second part of his press conference to preview this weekend’s trip to Spurs, Ruben was asked if this was how he expected his new striker to start his career at Old Trafford.

“Yeah, I'm relaxed – he’s not relaxed,” Ruben told journalists about Benjamin's form.

“What I mean is that I understand how things are in football and he's going to struggle. That is normal. He has no experience here, and then the first impact when everyone says that you are so good, you are the next big thing, and you hear about that with Sesko, and then you come to one club that is the hardest club. If you don't perform every week, you are going to hear a lot of things from club legends, from pundits, from the media, and sometimes they are right. 

“To have the ability to understand that is normal and still maintain your level of confidence is really hard for a young kid, especially for a young kid that is a control freak, wants to control everything, and he's not going to control everything. 

“So, I know, and I say that when I start training with Ben, he has more potential than I was thinking. He’s going to struggle, and we need to understand how he likes to play also to put in our ideas. 

“So, [with] everything, I think I'm quite relaxed with that. He is going to be our striker for the long term. But he's going to have these struggles and these bumps during the ride, and that is a normal thing in football.”

Amorim referenced comments from club legends in his answer and went on to address recent criticism of Sesko from Gary Neville, in response to the following question.

The boss thinks that Neville's words were not personal and, while stating his intention to protect Benjamin, admitted that outside noise is something the forward should embrace and will get used to as he gains more experience here.
 
“Of course, nobody likes to hear, but he struggled a little bit, and that is a fact. So, let's embrace that,” Amorim continued.

“It’s not personal, it’s not nothing. That is what I try to explain to the players. That it is not personal. It's an opinion that is going to change in three weeks. Everything that is true today, in three weeks, could be a lie. 

“So of course, it's hard to hear, but my advice to Ben is you are going to get used [to it]. And then it's going to be natural. It's going to be like your Monday here. 

“So that is part of the process, and we are going to help him and we are going to protect Ben because he works really hard and we want to succeed. So, he's going to succeed.”