One Liverpool player had Steve Nicol applauding him while the Scot was watching the Reds dismantle Aston Villa at Anfield on Sunday.
Jurgen Klopp’s side eased to a 3-0 home win yesterday, with Trent Alexander-Arnold marking his status as captain for the day with a sumptuous performance.
The 24-year-old unfortunately went off during the second half with a suspected hamstring injury (LFC official website), but prior to that abrupt exit he lit up the match with his exquisite distribution, with 68 passes completed in total, including eight long balls (Sofascore).
A couple of inch-perfect diagonal balls to Luis Diaz in the opening minutes set the tone for the afternoon, while his 50-yard pass to pick out Mo Salah in the lead-up to the second goal was a thing of beauty.
Nicol, who admitted to strongly criticising Trent in the past over his defensive displays, could only sit and clap while watching the Scouser on Sunday.
Speaking on ESPN FC, the 61-year-old said: “I know I do particularly give Alexander-Arnold some stick about his defending, but I tell you what, there was about three passes today where I was sat in front of the telly clapping.”
When looking back at the captain’s performance yesterday, you can be sure that Nicol wasn’t the only viewer left applauding his sheer brilliance on the ball.
This was Trent at his best, and let’s hope the injury which forced him off is nothing more than a minor knock.
You can hear Nicol’s comments on Nunez below (from 1:54), via ESPN FC on YouTube: