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Imagine the following: a happy the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't worry locating an actual photo of him missing; context is your adversary. Then, include some goal stats in a large, silly font. Remember the emojis. Share it everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count features strikes in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. And will you highlight that several of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Slovenia and generates far more chances. You manage social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to scan a 44-minute podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. Nobody needs that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.

However, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? Please a decision now.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, allowing technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless contrasts, a square that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. He has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 touches. What exactly are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts argue passionately on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to attack but also the freedom to fail. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared infographic handily stated that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately geared for controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite sluice of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now basically content, commodity, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must constantly be producing the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and harshly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, a lot of those same players are now being disdained as failures. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that Sesko meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that happens in the background while we browse through our phones, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience here.