Rio Ferdinand has called on Michael Carrick to provide Benjamin Sesko more opportunities to start out after Manchester United were held to a 2-2 by Bournemouth.
United went ahead twice through Bruno Fernandes’ penalty and James Hill’s own goal, but were pegged back on each occasions by Andoni Iraola’s side.
Ryan Christie scored first for the house side before Harry Maguire’s sending off and Junior Kroupi’s goal from the penalty spot forced United to accept some extent.
Fernandes once more proved the creative spark for the vistors, continuing his impressive run of form since Carrick’s arrival, but elsewhere, it was one other quiet night for Bryan Mbeumo leading the road for United.
The Cameroonian forward is with no goal in his last six games, but Carrick has kept faith with the 26-year-old despite havint Sesko on the bench.
Sesko has began just two games since Carrick’s arrival, but has proved impactful off the bench, with 4 goals goals in his last six games instead.
And while not capable of find the winner when brought on against Bournemouth on Friday, Ferdinand thinks it’s time for the 22-year-old to get a run of games within the starting lineup.
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‘I feel with Sesko now, he has five goals in nine games, most of them coming off the bench, and also you’re him considering, you’re scoring that quantity of goals, when’s he actually going to get a start?’ Ferdinand said.
‘Because he’s come on again, but you possibly can’t all the time save the day. It’s not all the time gonna occur where you come on and proceed to only keep saving the day and keep getting your goals like that.
‘I feel he’ll be sitting there now type of considering, ‘right, okay, come on, time’s up now give me the starts that I require now to place myself in a very good place’.’
Regardless, Friday’s draw leaves United third within the Premier League, 4 points ahead of fourth-placed Aston Villa and 6 points behind second-placed Manchester City, who’ve a game in hand.
And Ferdinand believes his former side needs to be feeling extremely confident about securing Champions League football for next season.
‘We’re still sitting nice, I still think Aston Villa are going to drop away because I feel the European football goes to harm Villa in the long term,’ he added.
‘The more games they’ve got, the more injuries they probably pick up. I feel a whole lot of individuals are going, ‘Can they get top 4?’ Man United, I feel they’re a certainty now for top 4.
‘As I said, that’s the style of game that under the previous regime, Man Utd lose that game. They go one-nil up, then they’re pegged back, they go two-one up, then they’re pegged back and a red card. The momentum shift is very large and I don’t think they might give you the chance to work with that.
‘Man United today, they got rocked in that moment but they weathered the storm and got here out of a 2-2 draw on the tip of it.
‘I feel when you’re going to take anything out of the sport, that’s a step forward and it’s a bit more positivity provided that I actually imagine that we might have probably lost that game earlier within the season or last season.
‘In order that’s a positive when you’re gonna take anything from it but we’re third so that you’ve got to be blissful with that.’
United are back in motion after the international break to tackle Leeds United at Old Trafford.
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