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With Florian Wirtz out of action and Liverpool in need of creativity, there is only one man for Arne Slot to turn to.
If a player is good enough, their age is only relevant when it comes to questioning whether or not they can play every game.
Position is also important. Goalkeepers and centre-halves are almost immune from the drop until their 40’s, unless they start making costly mistakes that is. Virgil van Dijk could have many more years left for Liverpool, as could Alisson, as long as they have the right supporting cast.
Rio Ngumoha is good enough to start for Liverpool
Football is a strange game. Take rugby, for example, there is no real difference between positions where age, old or young, is a direct benefit. Football, on the other hand, is notoriously harder for younger players in defence whilst old age and Father Time, normally, for those who aren’t genetic freaks like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, blunts attacking prowess as muscles become less dynamic and less elastic.
Mohamed Salah has had to adjust this season and become more creative having looked like he would score 20 plus goals for as long as he wanted to ever season for Liverpool only last year. What he used to bring, was chaos. A quality that Rio Ngumoha brings now and that Arne Slot should add to his starting XI in the absence of Florian Wirtz instead of Cody Gakpo and even so that Salah himself can be rested and rotated. If Wayne Rooney, Lamine Yamal and Erling Haaland can be trusted to play week in, week out at 18, why can’t Ngumoha?
Arne Slot defends his use of Rio Ngumoha
Slot used a comparison with other clubs as an example of how he is giving Ngumoha a chance, only to contradict himself at the same time. How can the former Chelsea kid develop his weakness if he is only getting a handful of minutes here and there?
“He has incredible potential, otherwise at 17 years of age you don't play as many minutes as he does in the Premier League, let alone at Liverpool.” Claimed Slot via Liverpool’s website. “I don't think there's any other 17-year-old that has played so many minutes this season in the Premier League as he did. I don't think there is an 18- or 19-year-old maybe that played so many minutes as he did, but that last thing I'm not 100 per cent sure about. So that tells you how much of a talent he is and we think he is. He's making progress more and more and that's why lately you see him playing more and as well.
“He gets stronger. Apart from his moment where he had that one-v-one, there were also one or two other moments where he showed that he stands his ground. That is, of course, what you need because you face 25-, 26-, 27-, 28-year-old athletes mainly as your opponents. We're a bit of an exception in terms of the age of our group of players, most teams we face have players of different ages and different physicality. For him to show this already at 17 years of age says something about his talent. But as we all know, talent is only the start of a career and you need so many other things, as we've shown today – Macca [is] a great example about mentality. That is something you need to get a career at this level.”
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