Liverpool's Florian Wirtz was left with egg on his face after being nutmegged by an Aston Villa star.
Wirtz came on as a substitute in the 77th minute of Liverpool's 2-0 win over Villa at Anfield on Saturday night having been benched again by Arne Slot.
The £116million signing gave a decent impression after coming on, with some impressive moments mixed in, but the overriding memory will be of this moment.
Liverpool had fluffed their lines with a three-on-three counter-attack in the dying minutes of the game, with Boubacar Kamara dispossessing Mohamed Salah.
The midfielder then managed to roll the ball through Wirtz's legs and leave the German in his dust as he began Villa's own counter.
Wirtz, 22, did not make any real effort to track back and walked away with his head down, despite only having been on for 11 minutes.
Florian Wirtz was nutmegged by Aston Villa star Boubacar Kamara on Saturday night
Overall, Wirtz made a decent impression after coming on but the nutmeg stood out
He did show glimpses of dynamism. At one point, he won the ball in the middle of Liverpool's half and charged towards the half-way line, but then released a wayward pass to Cody Gakpo which went out of play.
And the fear for Wirtz moving forward was just how impressive Liverpool's midfield three as Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, and Dominik Szoboszlai were.
Slot went with the tried-and-trusted formula which won them the Premier League title last campaign and the midfield helped them control most of the game.
Joe Cole lauded them on TNT Sports, saying: 'The midfield three, it's so important that they stick together. They look so much better. The balance was right. Any team in the top six or eight, they have to play.'
In Daily Mail Sport's player ratings for the match, Szoboszlai was handed an 8.5, Gravenberch received an 8, and Mac Allister got a 7.
Our Merseyside football reporter Lewis Steele hailed Gravenberch as being 'back to his best' on his return from injury after he bagged the second goal of the game.
Just because Wirtz was left on the bench does not mean that Slot has lost faith in him.
The Reds boss has stressed how important rotation is and he may have had an eye on Tuesday's Champions League clash against Real Madrid.
At least statistically, that competition has been kinder to Wirtz this season. He bagged a couple of assists in the 5-1 rout of Eintracht Frankfurt, but he is still waiting for his first goal contribution in the Premier League.
That's no problem, though, according to Dimitar Berbatov. Earlier this week, the former Manchester United and Tottenham striker - who, like Wirtz, moved to the Premier League from Bayer Leverkusen in 2006 - insisted he will shine.
He told the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast: 'I love him. He’s a fantastic player. He will be unbelievable, trust me.
'Hopefully, he will be patient. Hopefully, he’ll have good people around him, agent, family, whatever. Hopefully, the coach sees his quality like everybody sees him.
'I’m sure that everybody sees his quality, and they’ll give him that time that he needs to fit into the team. And I guarantee you, he’s going to be a success.'

9 hours ago
14

















































