Elvis Basanovic, the agent of Benjamin \u0160e\u0161ko, has publicly rejected the notion that the Slovenia forward is merely a “super sub,” arguing that his client should be recognised as a “super striker.” Since Michael Carrick’s appointment, \u0160e\u0161ko has scored five goals in nine games, with four of those strikes coming after he entered from the bench.<\/p>\n
“If you ask me about this name, I don\u2019t like it,” Basanovic told Slovenian broadcaster Arena Sport. “I like \u2018super striker\u2019 much more. I think Benjamin is a super striker.<\/p>\n
“He has started 13 games this year, coming off the bench in 13 games. He scored half of his goals when he started the game and half when he came off the bench.<\/p>\n
“We can see that he is a complete striker and Benjamin is someone who deserves the name \u2018super striker.\u2019”<\/p>\n
The underlying numbers underline the contrast in \u0160e\u0161ko’s output when starting and when used as a substitute (stats via UnderStat). As a starter this season he has made 13 appearances, played 1,068 minutes and scored five goals, producing an xG of 7.46 from 39 shots (xG per shot 0.191). From the bench he has also had 13 appearances but 253 minutes, scoring four goals from an xG of 2.54 and 14 shots (xG per shot 0.181). His minutes per goal read 214 when starting and 63 as a substitute; assists and chances created are split 1 and 5 when starting, and 0 and 3 from the bench.<\/p>\n
There are tactical reasons for the disparity. As a substitute \u0160e\u0161ko benefits from tired defenders and from the workload created by the fleet-footed Bryan Mbeumo, who has been utilised as United’s first-choice centre forward under Carrick thus far. The numbers also suggest that some of this output is ahead of expectation: four substitute goals from an xG of 2.54 and a 29% shot conversion rate after coming off the bench are unlikely to be sustained over a long period.<\/p>\n
Basanovic’s push for more starts reflects traditional rewards for consistent selection, including the financial incentive of a starting bonus. The modern five-substitute era may force players and agents to adapt expectations. For now, \u0160e\u0161ko has shown a willingness to accept the substitute role to make an impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Agent Basanovic rejects ‘super sub’ tag for \u0160e\u0161ko and calls him a ‘super striker’ after his impact..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9657,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,1083,172,1125],"tags":[983,1305,317],"class_list":["post-9658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-man-utd","category-epl","category-strikers","tag-agents","tag-bench-selection","tag-benjamin-sesko"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}