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Imagine the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Don't worry locating an actual photo of that miss; context is the enemy. Then, include some goal stats in a big, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share it across all platforms.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. Nor would you note that four of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and generates far more chances. You manage social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the wheel of content turns. The next job is to sift through a lengthy interview featuring Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. Nobody needs that. Simply ensure "weird" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The summer market is closed. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? Please a decision immediately.

Sesko as The Prime Example

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to develop. And the demand to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and jokes, context-free criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to offer a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United to date. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? Nor do I propose to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a big, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the press are not alone in this. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly geared for controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the middle of it all, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about them is now basically material, product, open-source property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and cruelly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, praising them, drooling over them. Now, only a handful of games later, a lot of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on a person who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Their star finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. The coach losing his hair.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to inflect the way we watch it, an entire sport repivoted around talking points and reaction, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we scroll through our phones, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. But in a way, we're all losing a part of the experience here.