Michael Owen has defended Michael Carrick’s treatment of Manchester United forward Benjamin Sesko, claiming the £74million signing is ‘not in the top ten in the world’ for his position.

This comes after the Red Devils’ lacklustre performance in Sunday’s Manchester derby at Old Trafford, where they fell to a 1-0 defeat despite being up against ten men for the majority of the match following Phil Foden’s red card.

While Erling Haaland’s winning goal proved massively controversial, it was another toothless performance from United, who have managed just one win from their opening four Premier League games since Carrick took over the reins on a permanent basis.

Prior to the match, there had been calls for Sesko to start after the striker found the back of the net in United’s previous two games, but Carrick kept the faith with Matheus Cunha and Marcus Rashford.

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Sesko had to be patient for his opportunity and remained on the bench until the 67th minute, a decision Gary Neville strongly criticised, and the clamour is now stronger than ever for the Slovenia international to be in the XI.

However, former United and England striker Owen disagrees, believes the 23-year-old is not yet good enough to lead the line, telling Metro: ‘There’s so many different [attacking] options, which is a nice thing for Manchester United.

‘I think Sesko still needs to develop more as a player to be the real deal.

‘Surely Manchester United have aspirations of being the best team in the country again and winning the Premier League. For them to do that, I would suggest that they need a centre-forward that is one of the best in the world.

‘Is Sesko one of the ten best centre-forwards in the world? No, I don’t think he is.

‘How do you get him there? Well, maybe you play him a bit more and give him more experience. Maybe that is the way forward.

‘But as things stand now, if I was picking the team yesterday, I would have done exactly the same as Michael Carrick. I don’t think he’ll be having sleepless nights.

‘I think Sesko is a great impact player. I’ve got no problems if one of them got injured and he started. He’s scored goals from starting and from coming off the bench.

‘He’s a good player to have in your squad, but I don’t think there should be a massive clamour all of a sudden just because they didn’t score a goal in the game. They scored five goals against Ipswich not so long ago.’

It remains to be seen if Carrick will freshen things up moving forward, with United next in action on Wednesday night when they take on Brighton in the third round of the Carabao Cup.

The Red Devils switch their attentions back to Premier League matters four days later with a trip to Craven Cottage to take on Alvaro Arbeloa’s struggling Fulham.

Michael Owen was speaking with Metro, where the football legend now serves as Casino.org’s ambassador, helping British players compare the best online casinos selected for UK players.

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