Brighton head coach Fabian Hurzeler has tipped one Manchester United star to become a ‘big player’ for the club following Ruben Amorim’s sacking.
United take on Brighton in the FA Cup third-round on Sunday, with the Red Devils still reeling from the departure of Amorim who was axed after falling out with Old Trafford chiefs last Monday.
After overseeing the 2-2 draw at Burnley during the week, Darren Fletcher will continue in the dugout for now, with the club in talks to re-hire Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Michael Carrick as interim manager until the end of the season.
United played well at Turf Moor, with Benjamin Sesko bagging a brace – scoring as many goals in 10 minutes as he had in his 17 prior appearances for the club.
The Slovenian has struggled for form and fitness since his £74million transfer from RB Leipzig last summer, but Hurzeler is confident the 22-year-old will develop into a top Premier League striker.
‘I followed him [when I was coaching in Germany]. I think he can be a big player for United,’ the Seagulls boss said in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
‘He has everything that a good striker needs. He’s physically very strong, fast, scores with his head. He is technical, finds good solutions in tight spaces. I like him as a player.
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‘He didn’t have an easy start but against Burnley he was impressive. So we definitely have to take care of him. But not only him, they also have other really good players, especially the offensive players.
‘I know they’re still missing some players because of AFCON but they still have the quality to hurt every opponent in the league. So not only Sesko, they have a lot of players who can make the difference, so we need to prepare for all of them.’
It is said Amorim was not keen on signing Sesko last summer and instead wanted United to buy Ollie Watkins from Aston Villa, and it will be curious to see how Sesko gets on now the Portuguese head coach has left.
Brighton travel to Old Trafford having won just one of their last five games and Hurzeler admits preparations for the match have been made trickier by Fletcher replacing Amorim in the dugout.
‘It’s difficult to say because on the one side the players didn’t change, we will face the same that we faced under Ruben,’ the German added.
‘They changed the system. I don’t know how they will face us. We saw only one game against Burnley and it’s difficult to get so many conclusions out of one game.
‘They changed to a back-four. They had one clear No.10 on the pitch, one clear striker. They played a lot of crosses, especially from the left side. They have they have good crossers on the right-side like Diogo Dalot.
‘The main thing is United are still a big club with big players. They showed it again against Burnley that they can score in every second of the game, that they can easily change dynamics of the game within one action.’
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