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Imagine the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Do not worry finding a real picture of that miss; context is the enemy. Then, include some goal stats in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share it across all platforms.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. And will you highlight that several of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates far more chances. You run social media for a major brand, raw engagement is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content turns. The next job is to scan a 44-minute podcast featuring Peter Schmeichel and find 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"... well, cut that. Nobody wants that. Just ensure "weird" and "the player" appear together in the title. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred times to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. No one is talking about the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to read about football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league at this moment? We need a decision immediately.

Sesko as Patient Zero

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to generate permanent definitive judgment, a conveyor belt of takes and memes, context-free condemnations and pointless contrasts, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to offer a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. The guy has started four times in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this season (one pundit), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the license to rampage but also the freedom to miss. And in part this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw a case of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart handily stated that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are by no means alone in such behavior. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with skin in the game is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Do we realize, on any level, what this infinite sluice of irritation is doing to our minds? Separate from the essential weirdness of playing in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now essentially material, product, open-source property to be repackaged and traded.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most visibly and harshly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Now, only a handful of games later, a lot of those same players are already being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker an expensive flop. The coach losing his hair.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our phones, unable to detach from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience here.