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Imagine this: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Do not worry finding an actual photo of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, include statistics in a large, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post the image across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the Champions League while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor would you note that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more chances. If you run social media for a large outlet, raw engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content turns. The next job is to sift through a 44-minute interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one wants that. Just make sure "weird" and "Sesko" appear together in the title. The audience will be furious.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my favourite times to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? Please an answer immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to delay final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a square that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United to date. He has been in the lineup on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the license to attack but also the freedom to miss. And in part this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart handily informed us that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the media are not alone in this. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially operating along the identical rules, an ecosystem explicitly geared for controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any 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 this, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now basically content, product, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of opinion most visibly and harshly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being disdained as failures. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at home in the Premier League and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like submitting a a report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and reaction, something that occurs in the background while we scroll through our phones, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. Perhaps Sesko bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience here.