Carrick hails super-sub Sesko

LIVERPOOL — Manchester United boss Michael Carrick praised the impact of super-sub Benjamin Sesko after the Slovenian's cool finish earned a 1-0 win at Everton on Monday night.

Sesko is yet to start in Carrick's six matches in charge, but has come off the bench to net vital goals in three of his last four appearances.

The 22-year-old also scored a late winner against Fulham and rescued a point against West Ham deep into stoppage time in United's previous outing.

Sesko started the move that led to the winning goal, as United's 200 million-pound ($270 million) trio of attacking signings last summer combined to great effect.

Matheus Cunha picked out the run of Bryan Mbeumo, who squared for Sesko to slot home his sixth goal in seven appearances since Ruben Amorim was sacked in January.

Victory lifted United into the Premier League's top four, three points clear of Liverpool and Chelsea in the battle for a place in next season's Champions League.

"It was a ruthless finish, I like the way he put it away with real confidence," said Carrick, who has five wins and one draw since taking charge at Old Trafford.

"Great play from Matheus and Bryan to set it up. Delighted for Ben again, coming on and making the difference."

In what was an uninspiring clash at Everton's new Hill Dickinson Stadium, United did not hit the heights of the sparkling performances it produced to beat title challengers Arsenal and Manchester City in Carrick's first two matches in charge.

But the former Middlesbrough boss was delighted with a third clean sheet in six games.

United had held opponents goalless just twice in 29 matches this season before Carrick's arrival.

"We had to do a lot of work. Credit to Everton, they made it difficult, made us defend our box a lot. The spirit with which we defended the box was top class," added Carrick.

Goalkeeper Senne Lammens made a couple of vital saves to continue an impressive debut season at United for the 23-year-old Belgian.

"Senne was outstanding tonight," said Carrick.

"You couldn't hope for much more from a goalkeeper. It was an exemplary performance, I'm so delighted for him.

"You want (a goalkeeper) to take the chaos away, and Senne does that. That calmness and composure helps those in front of him."

Lammens was called into action to deny teenager Harrison Armstrong, before keeping out Michael Keane's thunderous long-range effort as Everton tried to reply.

"It was really important for us to win this game. It was really difficult," Sesko said.

"We were fighting. They were fighting. It was a really 50-50 battle but we managed it until the end and secured the win."

Everton, which huffed and puffed but struggled to gain any real momentum until the latter stages, is now without a win in its last seven home games in all competitions and stays in ninth place in the table.

"Generally, we did very well in lots of bits," Everton manager David Moyes said.

"We got done on the counterattack and they ran away and got the goal that was there.

"We put in a great effort to get the goal, but lacked the quality to make it count.

"I'm not happy with the scoreline, that's for sure.

"You have to win games if you are going to keep moving on and we haven't been doing that, especially here.

"They got the one goal on the counterattack and we put in a great effort to try and get the goal back, but just lacked the quality to make it count."

Carrick has transformed United's fortunes and it is now firmly in the hunt for Champions League qualification with Slovenian forward Sesko beginning to blossom after a slow start following his big-money move from RB Leipzig.

He has now scored six goals in his last seven appearances for United, having managed only two goals before that.

"We always feel as though we have a chance. The clean sheet was just as important as the goal. It was a fabulous goal," Carrick said.

"Ben is in a good place at the moment and we've had some really good talks about it.

"He's going to be a big player for us for a long period of time, I'm sure of that."