‘Major red flag’ – Man Utd fans fearing worst for Benjamin Sesko after shying away from penalty in Grimsby humbling

MANCHESTER UNITED are fearing the worst after Benjamin Sesko appeared to shy away from a penalty against Grimsby Town.

The Red Devils were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by the League Two side after a tense penalty shootout.

United fell 2-0 down in the first half at Blundell Park before forcing spot kicks after goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Harry Maguire.

The shootout was a nervy affair as only Grimsby’s Clarke Oduor and United’s Matheus Cunha missed before sudden death.

As each player from the United team walked up and dispatched their penalty fans realised that Sesko had not taken one as the shootout went on.

The Slovenian striker eventually walked up to the spot at United’s TENTH penalty of the night.

This means Sesko, 22, only went ahead of goalkeeper Andre Onana in the taker order for United.

He did send Grimsby goalkeeper Christy Pym the wrong way with a composed finish.

However, many United fans were left concerned at the striker seemingly shying away from the responsibility of taking one earlier.

They took to social media to share their concern over the £74million man.

One posted: “Benjamin Sesko going 10th in a penalty shoot-out vs League Two opposition has to be a major red flag from a £70m centre-forward.”

A second commented: “Sesko has never missed a penalty. So why didn’t he want to take one tonight? Very, very odd.”

A third wrote: “Not liking the fact Sesko was the last outfield player to take a pen either, doesn’t fill me with much hope.”

A fourth said: “Sesko really doesn’t want to take a penalty. Not a great sign in your striker.”

Another added: “Has £74m Sesko seriously bottled taking a penalty against League 2 Grimsby here.”

Sesko had taken 11 penalties before the defeat in domestic and international football and scored all of them.

Manager Ruben Amorim admitted after the game that the penalties did not matter as the humiliation had already happened.

He told MUTV: “In the end, the penalties don’t matter.

“After the game, the penalties if you win or you lose, the feeling [about the 90 minutes] should be the same.

‘Let’s focus on the next game and then we have time to think about things.

“We have a lot of debts with our fans so let’s focus on the game.

“We have a job to do, a job to prepare and then we’ll stop and think things through.”

Amorim was labelled as a “coward” by United supporters after he appeared not to watch the shootout.

Supporters demanded that he be sacked from the Old Trafford dugout after he was seen fiddling with a tactics board on the touchline.

Gimsby Town have been rewarded with another big game in the third round as they will travel to Hillsborough to take on Sheffield Wednesday.