Gary Neville has tipped Benjamin Sesko to start for Manchester United against Crystal Palace this Sunday, with one attacker therefore dropping out of the XI

Gary Neville has told Michael Carrick to drop Amad Diallo and start Benjamin Sesko for Manchester United’s next Premier League game against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Sesko, 23, has been pushing for a start in recent weeks after scoring the winner in a 3-2 win against Fulham and the equaliser in a 1-1 draw at West Ham earlier this month. Despite this, Carrick named Sesko on the bench for Monday’s trip to Everton, preferring Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo in attack.

But Sesko, for the third time in four matches, scored as a second-half substitute as he netted a 71st-minute winner to earn United a 1-0 win at the Hill Dickinson Stadium. The Slovenia international finished off a fast counter-attack from the Reds and buried a first-time shot into the bottom corner after Mbeumo’s unselfish squared pass.FOLLOW OUR MAN UNITED FACEBOOK PAGE! Latest news and analysis via the MEN’s Manchester United Facebook page

With Sesko in fine form, he has put himself right in the mix to earn a first start under Carrick for Sunday’s Premier League game at home to Palace. And Neville believes that Sesko has now earned the right to have a place in the starting XI, with the ex-United defender urging Amad to drop out of the side for the ex-RB Leipzig forward.

“For Sesko now, I think he starts on Sunday against Crystal Palace,” Neville told Sky Sports. “I haven’t always been convinced about him this season, but what you have to do is move with what you see.

“I think there is a moment now where United have struggled in the last couple of games against West Ham and Everton; he looks like he is growing in his game and in his body, he looks like he has more power in his performance, his confidence is high. I think now on Sunday Michael Carrick starts him.

“Just feeling how Michael would look at that, I think it would kill the lad if he didn’t start. I think what you’ll see on Sunday is Cunha to the left, Mbeumo to the right, Sesko up top and Bruno in behind. I think Amad will just slip out for a game, he has been really good but I think Sesko starts.”

After Sesko buried the ball beyond Jordan Pickford, it felt as though there was real aggression and passion behind the celebration as he strutted to the delighted United fans in the corner.

“That celebration was a message to everybody, mainly those Manchester United fans over in the corner that were going wild,” Neville said. “But that was a message to say, ‘get me in this damn team now, I start next time’.

“I think he will have been really disappointed, having scored against West Ham, which was a wonderful goal, not to be in that team today. You say he had a difficult time under Ruben Amorim, absolutely! But Michael Carrick has not started him yet in any game. So, he is obviously preferring other players it’s fair to say.

“However, what he has now done in these three games; the winner against Fulham, the West Ham goal which was a big goal to get a point out of a game where United didn’t play well, and then today with a winner where United haven’t played well.”

Sesko now has eight goals in 24 matches for United since his £74million move from Leipzig last summer. He is, however, finding some form having found the net three times in his last four appearances.

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