At one point during the first half, you would have been forgiven for wondering why Ryan Gravenberch had wandered onto the field at the Philips Stadion in Eindhoven, when he was meant to be putting his feet up during PSV vs Liverpool. Alas, it wasn't him.
No, this was the player Arne Slot deployed alongside Wataru Endo in the Liverpool midfield engine room. Making his European debut, James McConnell was excellent and really took the chance to stake a senior claim.
"There is definitely one of them that will not go on loan," Slot said during his post-match press conference. "I think you know which one I mean: James McConnell.
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"I wouldn’t say definitely, but I liked him a lot today, so maybe now the end result today would be it’d be good for him to go somewhere and play. He was also a player that hasn’t played 90 minutes in the last six or seven months because he was injured for a while. He impressed me a lot."
McConnell played the whole game against the Eredivisie champion and only gave the ball away six times. His Gravenberch moment saw him glide past two PSV players with the ball at his feet. Everything in possession was effortless, while he completed the most tackles of anyone on the pitch.
"If I would have been surprised it would mean during training sessions he is not able to play at this level and that’s not the truth," Slot continued. "He is competitive to the ones we have that were not even here (the senior stars who were rested).
"He is always a very competitive player, so I am not surprised. But you always wonder how you are going to react on this stage and at this level. That James plays and is competitive is not a surprise, but he definitely deserves credit for his performance today."
As he showed here, McConnell could comfortably play every week for a top-end Championship team. He would have a strong chance of featuring regularly for lots of Premier League outfits too.
But while he is not going to play every week for Liverpool because of Gravenberch, the man he resembled at times here, the Dutchman is not going to be able to play every minute for the remainder of the campaign. With Slot and his sporting director Richard Hughes not eyeing new signings until the summer, there might be more opportunities for McConnell down the line.
Could he come on to give Gravenberch a rest in matches when Liverpool has a decent lead? Yes. Will he be able to feature in lesser fixtures such as the FA Cup trip to Plymouth? Most certainly.
There is also Endo, of course, but the Japanese is more of a traditional number six than what Slot ideally wants from that position, which almost certainly explains his limited game time to date. McConnell, like Graveberch, is more about silkiness than steel — and he might just have played himself into contention.
