Staff Takeaways: Leeds United 2-1 Manchester United

Leeds United's Ao Tanaka and Manchester United's Benjamin Sesko during the Premier League match at Old Trafford, Manchester. Picture date: Monday April 13, 2026. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images) | PA Images via Getty Images

Pauly: Alarming lack of depth on display

There hasn’t been much change in United’s underlying numbers between Ruben Amorim and Michael Carrick this season. The magical secret to Carrick’s success has mostly been he’s put his best players out on the pitch and used them in their most effective roles.

Well, what happens if those players suddenly aren’t available? Monday night against Leeds happens.

Carrick named an unchanged XI in his first two games in charge. Seeing as pretty much everyone was available and those matches were against Manchester City and Arsenal we can deduce that this was his first choice XI. Five of the players from that starting XI were not in the team against Leeds, whether because of injury, suspension, illness, or carrying a knock. The gap between those five players and their replacements range from pretty substantial to catastrophic.

The result was a hodgepodge of players thrown together that didn’t complement each other and couldn’t cover each other’s weaknesses. The absence of Kobbie Mainoo brought in Manuel Ugarte, a player who has no on-ball qualities and isn’t great defensively because he rarely holds his position. Benjamin Sesko’s game is more suited to coming off the bench. He doesn’t offer you much outside of the box, making it more difficult to advance the ball to the final third. You need to accommodate that in your buildup play, but that’s made more difficult with Ugarte’s lack of ball-playing ability and that Noussair Mazraoui doesn’t do much to support his winger. At the back United were missing Harry Maguire, a key player not just in terms of winning headers in the box but for communication and keeping the defense organized.

The result was a front three that was always going to be isolated from each other and struggle to create chances from open play (half of United’s shots came from corners, only two open-play shots had an xG of 0.1 or higher). Deeper on the pitch they were starting a weak back line with an even weaker midfield tasked with protecting it.

United struggled from the start. Their midfield was carved open as Ugarte and Casemiro struggled to keep up or just stay in position. Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martinez, and Mazraoui all had their various (known) defensive weaknesses exposed. A team with no progressive passers struggled to move the ball up the pitch and create chances.

This wasn’t an injury crisis hitting Old Trafford. Five changes is a lot but these weren’t fifth choice players. Each of these players were second choice in their position. It’s alarming that outside of United’s first choice players the rest of the squad is not up to Premier League standard. Monday night really put into perspective just how big INEOS’ task is over the next few years because this issue is not going to be fixed in one summer.

Colin: United needs more from Sesko

Manchester United’s big money striker move from the summer took a minute to turn on, but became a big goalscorer for United as soon as a change in manager was made. It wasn’t by accident either, Sesko became the focus of the attack when on the pitch under both interims in Darren Fletcher and Michael Carrick. Even when he was used as a second half substitute, he kept his cool to find the net in some big spots for United.

That hasn’t necessarily been the case as a starter recently, and the weaknesses in his game were on further display against Leeds on Monday.

Sesko’s touch/heat map is staggered and his opportunities to get on the end of crosses or balls into the box were limited. He sent his best chance right at the keeper in the second half, but he should have had two even better opportunities earlier in the match.

He was wasteful with just one man to beat in the first half, controlling a through ball from Amad and failing to get a real effort off after slowing down play and doing very little to make his marker work.

It isn’t just getting him on the ball though. Sesko has to put himself in the game more and he has to be better at playing the ball with his feet, contributing to buildup, and engaging in interplay rather than just waiting for the play to come to him. He makes good runs, he is good in the air and he is certainly one of the few options to shake up the attack in a thin squad, but he has to do more if he wants to be more than a big lad goalscorer.