There is hope for Michael Carrick, if only he can see it. Benjamin Sesko is fire, and could light the way after Manchester United blew the softest start to the season of any Premier League team.
Sesko’s crashing 89th-minute header would have won the game for any self-respecting title contender. But this is Carrick’s United, the achingly-slow pursuit of the perfect pass for no apparent reason.
Sesko had been on the pitch barely 20 minutes and fashioned the kind of goal too rarely seen in this geometric era of endlessly-recycled possession and wingers who cut inside.
Ignoring the convention, overlapping left-footer Luke Shaw hit the byline to float a cross into the box. Sesko threw himself at it, leaving Jordan Pickford trying to pluck a fish from the air.
Sesko’s reaction said it all. It screamed winner, as in the character of the man if not the match. It should have been both, but under Carrick, United are constantly stuck between gears, and none of them fast.
