Peter Schmeichel has slammed the business Manchester United did during the summer transfer window, branding one signing as “weird”.
Man Utd's summer signings yet to make major impact
After finishing 15th in the Premier League last season, the Man United squad was always going to need major surgery in the summer, but their new additions, despite showing some promising signs, are yet to make a major impact.
Matheus Cunha has largely been utliised as a substitute in recent weeks, after injury derailed the Brazilian forward’s start to the season, while Bryan Mbeumo has just one goal to his name in the opening seven league matches.
With Andre Onana and Altay Bayindir both making errors to give away goals at the start of the season, it was always going to be important for Ruben Amorim to bring in a new goalkeeper, and Senne Lammens is off to a solid start, keeping a clean sheet in the 2-0 win over Sunderland.
Benjamin Sesko is also starting to find his form, scoring in his last two Premier League outings, but Schmeichel has criticised the decision to sign the Slovenian in the first place on the Sacked in the Morning podcast.
The former Man United goalkeeper said: “The signing of Benjamin Šeško was a little bit weird to me because we have Rasmus Hojlund, who has been starved of service for two years.
The Dane also went on to say: “You spend £70 million+ on Sesko, when we don’t have the number six we should have, and there’s the goalkeeping position as well.
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“This season alone, we’ve conceded nine goals from goalkeeping errors. When I played, when Edwin van der Sar played, when David de Gea played, the brief was win 10 points a season; you don’t give points away.
“Why did we bring someone in that we didn’t need? Because the head of recruitment comes from Leipzig [Sesko’s former club], and he’s got to make a mark.”
Hojlund off to flying start at Napoli
Sesko is starting to come good, but it is clear to see why Schmeichel doesn’t believe he was a necessary signing, with Hojlund making a flying start to life at Napoli, scoring four goals in his opening six matches in all competitions.
The 61-year-old was also right to assess that signing a new goalkeeper was far more important, given just how poor Andre Onana has been since his arrival, with Nemanja Matic famously singling the Cameroonian out for heavy criticism last season.
That said, while it is still early days, Lammens exhibited promising signs on his debut against Sunderland, making two saves from inside the box to keep the Black Cats at bay, and preventing 0.94 goals.
It must also be noted that Hojlund was very poor last season, scoring just four Premier League goals, so it is understandable that Amorim wanted to bring in an upgrade, and Sesko is now finding his feet.