After Michael Carrick was appointed in mid-January, Sesko went from super-sub to star striker by the end of the season. He enters the 2026/27 season as Manchester United's leading number nine, with a new level of pressure and expectations on his shoulders.
However, the evidence from last campaign and everything we know about his character suggest he will have no problem dealing with it. To the contrary, we expect him to excel in the 2026/27 season and live up to the tag as being one of the best up-and-coming strikers in world football.
Sesko is much more than a penalty-box striker
A glance at where Sesko scored his goals in the Premier League last season paints a picture of a penalty-box poacher.
Sesko scored all 11 of his goals (ranking joint 12th in the PL top-scoring charts) from inside the box in his debut campaign. However, anyone who watched even one Manchester United game last season would tell you there is far more to his game than that. Not like being a penalty-box goalscorer is something to be concerned about; you only need to ask Erling Haaland how effective it can be.
Whilst Sesko didn't score from outside the box, he also only attempted six shots from outside the area all season. We saw how much power he generates from his shots from inside the box, and when they found the back of the net, they did so with aplomb.
So if he can be encouraged to shoot more from longer range, there is no reason why he couldn't add at least five goals from outside the box this season. That would give him more avenues to score, rather than waiting for a chance to fall his way from a team that still struggles to consistently create openings for their striker.
Sesko is also blessed with immense pace and we saw him drive with the ball at speed and power before looking to find a teammate (with mixed results) last season. That is where he should look to be a bit braver in 2026/27, now he has established himself as a Premier League forward. Sesko shouldn't become entirely selfish, but he needs to become more selfish.
His 2024/25 campaign at RB Leipzig proves he is capable of doing it. Sesko took 25 shots and scored three Bundesliga goals from outside the area, as well as scoring two goals from fast breaks. Those are assets to his game that he already has at his disposal; he just needs to rediscover the confidence to take matters into his own hands and add to his goals from inside the box that have already made him a fan favourite at Old Trafford.
Now, it is no coincidence that Sesko found it easier to get shots off in the Bundesliga than he did last season in the Premier League. Sesko played in a Leipzig side set up to be dangerous on the counter, with Xavi Simons often creating for the front two of Sesko and Lois Openda. There is also a lot more time and space in the Bundesliga, so shooting from range is easier.
In the Premier League, you are rarely given any breathing space for long shots, and as a lone striker, your best opportunity for them comes when you drop deep to collect the ball. Man United didn't want that from Sesko in the main last season, instead preferring him at the end of moves created by Bruno Fernandes and Co.
United might well look to dominate more of the ball this season after signing two technically sound players in Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans, and as a result, Sesko should have more opportunities to pick the ball up in deeper positions, turn and pull the trigger from range with venom.
Another string to Sesko's bow is hold-up play, and it further confirms he is much more than just a penalty-box striker.
Sesko has room for improvement when it comes to the consistency of his ball control. He can be guilty of heavy touches at critical moments either in build-up or in the final third. However, the Slovenian striker is very good at clever flick-ons or, at times, turning his man and laying it off for a wide man to run into space.
In the 2024/25 Bundesliga season, Sesko's 49 successful flick-ons in 33 appearances were 18 more than his striker partner Lois Openda (who also played 33 times). And last season in the Premier League, Sesko's 28 flick-ons in 30 appearances were more than anyone else in the United squad despite playing fewer minutes than most of his teammates.
Now, as the only natural striker in the squad, it doesn't come as a great surprise, but what it does highlight is that Sesko is very capable of keeping possession alive for his side in intricate and intelligent ways.
Sesko needs to become more prolific
The irony about Sesko being labelled a penalty-box striker because all his Premier League goals came from inside the box is that he missed some big chances last season. The underlying stats tell us that Sesko should have scored more goals last campaign.
It is worth remembering that for much of the first half of the season, Sesko appeared to lack confidence in front of goal and was playing in a Ruben Amorim side that was far from convincing.
It is clearly an area Sesko needs to work on after ending last season with a big chance conversion rate of 40% and missing 12 big chances over the course of the campaign.
11 expected goals suggests he scored what was expected of him, but elite centre forwards find a way to score more goals than the stats expect, and that is where Sesko must have more confidence to take on shots from distance.
What is encouraging, however, is comparing Sesko's stats from last season to the league's best strikers. Haaland, who is the best forward in the country (if not the world), missed 30 big chances last campaign and his big chance conversion rate of 41% only just beats Sesko's.
The most ruthless strikers in 2025/26 were Joao Pedro with a 53% conversion rate, Igor Thiago with 51%, Viktor Gyokeres with 45% and Ollie Watkins with 44%. The most impressive of those is Pedro because, like Sesko, he only missed 12 big chances, whereas Thiago missed 20, Watkins missed 19, and Gyokeres missed 13.
What that tells us is that Sesko is not far off the top strikers in the league in terms of how clinical he is. To finish next season higher up the goalscoring charts, Sesko will need to score different types of goals more often and take more of the 'big' chances that come his way, but the stats show he is on the right track.
They also tell us that Sesko needs more from his teammates because, among the Premier League's most prolific strikers last season, only Brentford's Kevin Schade and Bournemouth's Dango Ouattara scored fewer big chances than him. Sesko's 20 big chances in total last season tell a story of a striker who is not often getting enough good service.
Because despite playing fewer minutes than Haaland, having 21 fewer big chances is concerning and speaks volumes about Man United's struggles in creating for their striker - struggles that go back years.
Sesko can look to his teammates to create better chances for him, but he has to look at himself too. At times, he seems to panic when he has too much time in the box, which results in him missing some gilt-edged chances.
Yet Sesko is so effective at scoring improbable goals from much more difficult positions and angles. That tells us that the 23-year-old has impressive instincts and the way he finds such accuracy with rocket strikes from tight angles is up there with the best strikers in world football.
If the 6ft 5in striker can add some composure to his game when working less on instinct, then you could easily imagine him halving his big chances missed.
Sesko is set for a big 2026/27 campaign
Now this is all very hypothetical and a stats-oriented way of looking at things, but if Sesko adds the goals from outside the box that he showed at Leipzig, he is also capable of scoring and taking more big chances inside the box; Sesko would be looking at more like 20 goals in the Premier League next season. That would be a positive step for a young forward and Carrick would surely be delighted with such an output.
With Champions League football and domestic cups to look forward to, expect Sesko to play far more than the 1,635 minutes he played in the 2024/25 season. That comes with its own pressures, as 11 goals in all competitions would be deemed underwhelming this time out. But it also gives Sesko far more opportunities to develop his game, test himself against some of the best centre-backs in the world, and Man United will hope to score more goals.
Sesko is set for a big 2026/27 after an encouraging debut season in England, and if he fine-tunes his all-round game, then he has a chance to go from fan favourite to one of the best strikers in the Premier League.
