Arne Slot will be SO pleased with what midfielder did last night

Wednesday evening was the second part of the Champions League's first gameweek and plenty of standout performances were delivered by Liverpool players, not least the midfielders.

Florian Wirtz had his best game in a Red shirt to date, creating five chances. Dominik Szoboszlai ran himself ragged once again with his unrelenting work rate. And Ryan Gravenberch was on top form, playing to his usual high standards. As a trio, they caused absolute havoc for Atletico Madrid.

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While Curtis Jones was at home recovering from his injury, Alexis Mac Allister contributed in a 36 minute cameo off the bench, backing up the efforts of his teammates that started the contest.

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But away from Anfield, the performance of another Liverpool midfielder in the Champions League would have given Arne Slot pause when he arrived at his desk this morning.

McConnell features in Europe for Ajax

21-year-old James McConnell is a midfielder that Liverpool value incredibly highly, which is why he's been sent out on loan to one of Europe's giant clubs before a permanent call is made on his future.

He's playing his matches at Ajax under the leadership of former Red coach Johnny Heitinga and while the Englishman has experienced the thrill of featuring in the Champions League before - playing 90 minutes against PSV at the end of last year's 'league phase' - he's still new to it.

Heitinga started him on the substitute bench, but gave him 27 minutes to hold his own against Inter Milan, last season's runners up, and in what was a cut and thrust affair, he played particularly well.

He delivered one accurate long ball, one interception, two clearances and 14 accurate passes to gloss over the headlines and he'll no doubt have gained a lot of confidence from the experience, despite the side unfortunately losing the contest 2-0 due to goals coming either side of half time.

So far this season, he's been eased into the side and Liverpool will hope that he gets more opportunities to express himself on the pitch, but this was a really positive start to his career.

Further down the pitch, Liverpool goalkeeper Vitezslav Jaros had a mixed performance, making eight accurate long balls, while making an error which led to a shot. It was a rare off night for the Czech player consider he has kept two clean sheets in the six matches he's featured in so far for Ajax.

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