Troy Deeney gets it so wrong after Newcastle United pull off £32m PSR masterstroke

You suspect Tino Livramento is just getting started after winning his first England cap. It certainly won't be his last.

In fact, it was just a couple of days ago that Eddie Howe declared this 'progressive talent' had the attitude and technical base to be an 'exceptional' player. Kieran Trippier, who knows a thing or two about playing right-back at the very highest level, backed his 'unbelievable' Newcastle United team-mate to play for England long before his first call-up. England interim boss Lee Carsley hailed Livramento as a 'very talented' player after handing the defender his senior international debut last week. However, Troy Deeney is not convinced.

"I'm not sure on Livramento just yet," the former Watford captain told talkSPORT. "Look, it's hard to talk about people that are getting called up for the national team, but I just think, 'What's he great at?'

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"Is he an attacking wing-back or full-back? We've got that in Trent [Alexander-Arnold]. Is he better defensively than the others? I'd argue not.

"Maybe it's just because of all the injuries that he's getting in, but I just don't see it at the moment. We've done a few of the Newcastle games. He gets caught defensively at the back post for watching, waiting, not anticipating."

Deeney is entitled to his opinion, like we all are, and Livramento is not immune from criticism. Livramento, for instance, could have done more, defensively, when Newcastle conceded goals at Chelsea and Bournemouth earlier this season.

However, it is easy to forget that this is a player who only turned 22 last week and who has made just 45 top-flight starts to date. This is a full-back who showed remarkable mental strength to bounce back from 392 days on the sidelines after suffering a serious knee injury during a key stage in his development two-and-a-half years ago. This is a one-time winger who expertly shackled Arsenal star Gabriel Martinelli earlier this month after working hard on the defensive side of his game.

The numbers don't lie. Livramento has made 51 ball recoveries, 25 clearances, 13 blocks, 10 interceptions and nine successful tackles this season, which place him in the top five for each category at Newcastle in the Premier League.

Going forward, since joining the club for an initial £32m from Southampton, Livramento has stepped up with superb individual runs in huge games on the road: slaloming his way through in the build-up to Alexander Isak making it 1-0 against PSG in the Champions League; setting up Miguel Almiron's opener versus Manchester United in the Carabao Cup; and atoning for a defensive error at Chelsea by playing his part in Newcastle's equaliser last month.

Those qualities are the reason why Livramento has received international recognition - the defender was, tellingly, called up for the first time in September even when Alexander-Arnold was fit - and there is still more to come.

"From minute one, since he's come here, he's shown a real strength of character," Howe added. "For me, I didn't see a player who was in any way hesitant or nervous. He was all-in from minute one. He joined in with training, was physically fine and one of our best athletes straight away so you wouldn't have necessarily known he was coming off the back of a long-term injury.

"There's always an element of risk about every signing and people think when I say that it's just a clichéd answer, but it is. You could sign a player that's never been injured before and they could get injured on the first day of training. There's always that risk. Obviously, the risk is heightened if someone is coming off the back of a long-term injury like Tino had, but that was the only reason we were in a position to sign him because he had that injury. If he hadn't, he wouldn't have been attainable.

"Yes, we decided to sign him and I'm delighted we did. It's turned out to be a brilliant signing and a brilliant move for him as well."