Man Utd targets Benjamin Sesko and Ollie Watkins' stats compared and they make for fascinating reading
Manchester United's primary transfer targets Benjamin Sesko and Ollie Watkins' respective stats for the 2024/25 season have emerged as Ruben Amorim weighs up who he should sign to bolster his frontline.
United have already been busy this summer, bringing in Matheus Cunha from Wolves and Bryan Mbeumo from Brentford.
But they are still to keen to add a centre forward as Ruben Amorim looks to fix the side's attacking struggles.
Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee remain at the club but both struggled last season, scoring just seven league goals between them.
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It has pushed United into the market, with RB Leipzig's Sesko and Aston Villa's Watkins emerging as the main targets.
But they are different styles of striker at contrasting stages of their career.
Sesko is just 22 and one of Europe's tallest forwards at 6 foot 5 inches, and he likes to use his strength to hold off defenders and link play.
By contrast, Watkins is 29 and likes to run in behind defences, drifting into channels with clever movement.
He's also an experienced Premier League striker, who has hit double-digit hauls in the league for the last five years.
Premier League experience has been a consistent feature of United's recruitment this summer as they aim to improve on last year's 15th-placed finish.
How do Benjamin Sesko and Ollie Watkins compare?
Although they are different profiles of striker, both would be expected to add goals to United's misfiring frontline.
Since the start of 2023-24, Sesko has scored 0.62 goals per 90 in the league, compared to Watkins' 0.54.
Although the Premier League is widely considered a more difficult division to score goals than the Bundesliga.
Watkins also tends to get into better scoring positions with an expected goals per 90 of 0.5, compared to Sesko's 0.4.
The Slovenian is still young and is likely to develop his penalty box movement as he gets older.
Watkins is also the better chance creator, averaging 1.08 chances per 90, compared to Sesko's 0.71.
Evidently Watkins is the better player at the moment but he is in the prime of his career, while Sesko is still developing.
Who is a better fit for Manchester United?
It depends on whether United want to take a risk.
Watkins arrives as the Premier League-proven option, which is a strategy that Jim Ratcliffe and Jason Wilcox have preferred this summer with the purchases of Cunha and Mbeumo testament to that.
But, at 22, Sesko offers more upside than the 29-year-old Watkins, who lost his Aston Villa starting spot to Marcus Rashford last year.
Given Hojlund and Zirkzee's respective struggles in a United shirt, going for the Premier League-proven option in Watkins could make sense.
Although Aston Villa will not want to lose their frontman and it may cost up to £60 million to prise him out of Villa Park.
Topics: Ollie Watkins, Transfer News, Premier League, Football, Ruben Amorim, Man Utd
James Taylor