Captain Van Dijk urged Ngumoha to keep learning after a historic start to his Liverpool career
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Virgil van Dijk has urged Rio Ngumoha to “stay humble” so a “special talent” can have a superb Liverpool career.
The 16-year-old became the youngest scorer in Liverpool’s history, and the fourth youngest ever in the Premier League, when he came off the bench to score a 100th-minute winner against Newcastle on his top-flight debut.
And Van Dijk was delighted for the teenaged winger after his heroics at Newcastle but told him to learn from the senior figures in Liverpool’s squad.
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(Getty Images)
“Sixteen years old. Incredible,” he said. “I'm very happy for him. It should motivate him even more to keep working each and every day and stay humble.
“He is in a good environment to progress. He has to look after himself and he has to learn from all of us, playing for so many years at the highest level, and take it on board and progress. That is a good target for him.
“I think if you make your Premier League debut at 16, scoring the winner, then that is a great sign of quality and being a special talent.
“But I also know you have to take it game by game. He has to keep working hard, make sure he is staying fit, progressing, take experience, and look at what others are doing and learn from that as well.
“We have very good personalities in our team and make sure that we are all in this together. We want them to progress and get better. It is down to him first and foremost but also us as a team.
“It starts with mentality, of course. You have to have the right mindset. Nowadays, if you are a football player of the highest level, it takes much more than just playing on the pitch.
“You have to deal with a lot of things off the pitch as well. Mentally, physically, there are a lot of games. But it is a good start from him. He has to have the motivation to keep working and hopefully he will have a fantastic career.”
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(Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Van Dijk shrugged off suggestions Liverpool have defensive worries after they conceded twice against Newcastle, just as they had in the Community Shield against Crystal Palace and in the Premier League against Bournemouth.
“No, we're doing pretty well,” he insisted. “We don't want to concede goals and I think today we conceded two goals from set-pieces.
“We defended all night pretty well but those two goals got Newcastle back in the game and gave them belief. That is something we have to keep working on, and we will.”