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Manchester United<\/b><\/a> will experience far stiffer tests of their Champions League credentials than Sabah FK gave them at Old Trafford.<\/b><\/p>\n In fact, it would be no surprise if the Azerbaijani champions were by some distance the weakest of the eight league stage opponents Michael Carrick’s side will come up against.<\/p>\n However, there were some important lessons for head coach Carrick to absorb.<\/p>\n The biggest of them is that United are a much more effective unit when Benjamin Sesko starts.<\/p>\n This was the first time the Slovenian had done that since the Liverpool<\/a> game last March, when he finally accepted he could no longer play through the shin issue that had been plaguing him for a number of weeks.<\/p>\n It had been hoped Sesko would be fit for the start of the Premier League season.<\/p>\n As it turned out, he was only at the stage where he could be brought on as a substitute in the second half of the opening-day trip to Hull. The same also applied for the subsequent outings against Ipswich and Everton<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was Sabah’s bad luck that Sesko was fit to start against them \u2013 and it showed.<\/p>\n At 6ft 5in, the 23-year-old has a physical presence United’s other strikers lack.<\/p>\n Amad Diallo’s current absence has robbed Carrick of the option to start Bryan Mbeumo at the head of his attack, as he did during pre-season, but Matheus Cunha is not without ability in that role.<\/p>\n The problem is that the Brazilian likes to drift and drop back into space, which leaves a gap at the apex of Manchester United<\/a>‘s attack.<\/p>\n Sesko offers a totally different threat. He pushes defences back. He is not easy to dispossess. He runs at opponents rather than away from them.<\/p>\n He also scores goals.<\/p>\n