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Liverpool new boy Florian Wirtz suffered the ignominy of being part of the first ever Germany side to lose an away World Cup qualifier. He was handed an underwhelming 5/10 score as Slovakia engineered a 2-0 victory.
It would be ridiculous to say that the pressure is building on him, but in the age of constant scrutiny and social media "hate watches", Wirtz would have hoped for a confidence-building outing with the national side. Despite Liverpool's perfect start to the season, the Bayer Leverkusen arrival has faced pockets of criticism.
At least the capture of Alexander Isak has rapidly lifted the tag of record Anfield signing from his head. But with the likes of Gary Lineker and Alan Shearer already questioning whether Wirtz is unbalancing the team, a reminder of his star quality would be timely.
A look at some of the big names of the past provides a stark illustration of how much the football landscape has changed. Didier Drogba arrived at Chelsea for a record fee in 2004; in his first five seasons, he scored 10, 12, 20, 8, and 5 Premier League goals.
Now revered as a legend at Stamford Bridge, he likely would have been hounded out in the modern era. Five years in, he had at least scored some important goals in FA Cup and League Cup finals — but they would have been dismissed as Mickey Mouse trophies.
These days, big-money signings are lucky to even get five games to impress, never mind five years. There is an online army willing them to fail, and even their own fans are guilty of being impatient.
Up against such standards, Wirtz has failed to make an immediate doubter-silencing impact. He has shown flashes of his quality, beginning to dictate proceedings in the second half against Arsenal in particular, but there has undoubtedly been a period of acclimatization.
Liverpool will be relieved that Wirtz has not felt the need to make his own "resiliencia" post — the warning signs were there from Darwin Nunez's first preseason that the spotlight could prove to be a problem for him. Instead, the 22-year-old appears to be getting his head down and continuing the settling-in process.
But Steve Nicol has slammed Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann for failing to give Wirtz the best chance of success while away with Germany. He thinks the manager made a mess of his formation.
"Why are you playing Goretzka through the middle supposedly in an attacking position when you’ve got Florian Wirtz in your team?” lamented Nicol on ESPN FC. "Albeit a Florian Wirtz who hasn’t started that well for Liverpool, but why are you putting him out on the left?
"You had to have known coming into this game that you were going to have 70 per cent of the ball., so why are you playing somebody like Goretzka as an attacking midfielder? It makes no sense at all."
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Goretzka played the full 90 minutes, with Wirtz left out on the left throughout. In another interesting twist for Liverpool fans, Newcastle new boy Nick Woltemade was leading the line, after being signed as the Isak replacement.
Clearly, this setup did not work, with Germany struggling for any kind of attacking inspiration. Nicol was right to suggest that Nagelsmann failed to get the best out of Wirtz and others.
Having said that, Nicol's feedback loses quite a lot of weight by virtue of the fact that he was telling Arne Slot to move Wirtz out of the middle just one week ago. He is not immune to the kind of snap judgments that are constantly being made in today's football landscape.
Ultimately, Wirtz has the quality to shine for both club and country wherever he is played. He would have hoped for a brighter start to his campaign on a personal level, but this was the first time has has tasted defeat — and as long as he gets afforded some patience, Liverpool has every reason to be confident that he will provide a handsome return on investment in the long run.
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