Manchester United pursued several strikers in the summer before landing on Benjamin Sesko, who they decided on ahead of Viktor Gyokeres following a look at the data
Manchester United opted to go after Benjamin Sesko ahead of Viktor Gyokeres in the summer after a data-led approach suggested the Slovenian would be better suited to them.
The Red Devils were always going to add more firepower in the summer and were linked with several strikers. Ruben Amorim’s history with Viktor Gyokeres at Sporting Lisbon, where he was prolific, led to inevitable links but the Swede headed to Arsenal.
United landed Sesko for £74million, following a transfer battle with Newcastle, and his running metres proved crucial in that decision, reports The Times. It is an area of growth the club are targeting and that approach is led by the summer recruit Mike Sansoni who joined the club as director of data after spending 11 years with the Mercedes Formula 1 team.
Sansoni works closely with Wilcox and is leading a push at United which will see them become a “fully data-driven club which will lead to success on and off the pitch”. He has access to data models capable of listing the data of tens of thousands of players.
The cub believe they are among the leaders in that field, which ultimately led to the signing of Sesko. The jury is still out on the ex-RB Leipzig frontman but those concerns are not shared by those in Manchester.
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He has only scored twice for the club. Gyokeres has copped similar criticism after a slow start that has seen him scored four times. But Amorim and co are satisfied with his movement off the ball and his attitude during the week is that of a player determined to make his mark.
Sesko, as well as Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha, all showed a willingness to join the Manchester outfit, which was seen as another big plus. Sesko could’ve headed to St James’ Park with Newcastle also keen on Mbeumo, who had another offer from Tottenham.
Amorim accepts that Sesko will be concerned with his form, but he’s confident in the striker. He said: “I’m relaxed, he’s not relaxed. I understand how things are in football and he’s going to struggle. That is normal. He has no experience here.”
“Ben is a young kid, a control freak. He wants to control everything – and he’s not going to control everything. He has more potential than I was thinking [but] we need to understand how he likes to play and also to put in our ideas.
“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. That is a normal thing in football.”
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