Inter defender Milan Skriniar looked back to his best for the first time this season in yesterday’s Champions League win over Barcelona and it coincided with him wearing the captain’s armband.

This is noted in today’s print edition of Milan-based newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport, who suggest that it’s no suggest that the 27-year-old reserved this display for when the responsibility of being captain was placed on his shoulders.

Skriniar’s quality has never been in doubt after five seasons at Inter, but his performances over the first few weeks of this season have hardly lived up to his formidable reputation.

Therefore, there could well have been questions about the suitability of a player in the Slovakian’s form to take over the captain’s armband in the absence of Samir Handanovic.

However, Skriniar put any such doubts to bed by putting in a strong and relentless display at the back which gave the impression that he was really feeling the weight of his role as captain on the night.

Now, the Nerazzurri will go into contract extension talks with the former Sampdoria defender, and it remains to be seen if the change in mood brought upon by last night will affect things in this regard.