Standing in front of Declan Rice on the eve of England’s opening Euro 2024, you could almost see him biting his lip.
Graeme Souness says you do not score enough goals, you are not creative enough but apart from that, you are decent, Declan. What do you make of that?
To his considerable credit, Rice chose his words carefully and merely considered the criticism “harsh” but respected any opinion from a fine former player.
Twenty-fours hours later, though, the West Ham midfielder gave his full, indignant reply, shooting Souness down with both barrels. And it was not only Rice’s first half goal - struck with a natural scorer’s instinct - that deconstructed the Sky Sports pundit’s fairly lousy argument.
It was his all-round performance, his reading of the game, his distribution, his countless defensive interventions. When Rice is accused of not being creative enough, it is forgotten that his happy knack of dispossessing opponents is what often prompts England attacks.
If that is not being creative, it is hard to know what is. It has been the case on many previous occasions and it was the case in the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium in Naples on Thursday night.
The corner that led to his goal, hit nicely with his left foot, was conceded by Gianluigi Donnarumma’s fingertip save from a Jude Bellingham shot but the move that led to that shot was started by a Rice interception in his own half.
And that was not the first instance of that happening and was not the last. Of course, even when his timely tackling does not result in a dangerous counter-attack, it remains invaluable to this England set-up, one effort to steal the ball from a threatening Domenico Berardi a work of defensive art.
Yes, this occasion became all about the coronation of Harry Kane as England’s goalscoring king but there is no player more important to Gareth Southgate’s operation than Rice.
He is the player who gives crucial extra protection to Harry Maguire and John Stones, he is the player who gives Bellingham - magnificent as the attacking spearhead of the England midfield - the licence to maraud in such incisive and elegant fashion.
But he is more than Bellingham’s leg-man. He is the crux of this team. He is its pivot. And Rice, 24, is surely its future captain, his cajoling of Kalvin Phillips, clearly a little anxious on a rare start for a football team, an example of his leadership.
As a side issue, this display will surely have an impact on the course of his club career, which will surely take a different course in this summer’s transfer window.
If any of the truly elite clubs were having any doubts about the suitability of Rice as a big-money target - perhaps influenced by the negative observations of Souness and Roy Keane - they were surely dispelled by this demonstration of what he can do for a really good side.
At West Ham, he is, too often, a firefighter. For England, he can be both firefighter and fire-starter. It is hard to believe there are any of the Premier League’s Big Six - bar Manchester City, perhaps - who would not want Rice in their ranks.
He would be a fantastic addition to any of those squads. And, surely, even Graeme Souness would agree.
