Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, acknowledges the fans following the Premier League match between Liverpool and Fulham at Anfield on April 11, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images)placeholder image
Arne Slot, Manager of Liverpool, acknowledges the fans following the Premier League match between Liverpool and Fulham at Anfield on April 11, 2026 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Kate McShane/Getty Images) | Getty Images
Rio Ngumoha was on target as Liverpool earned a 2-0 victory over Fulham in the Premier League.
Arne Slot believes that Rio Nguomoha is in contention to start for Liverpool in their Champions League showdown against Paris Saint-Germain.
The 17-year-old winger dazzled yet again in the 2-0 win over Fulham. Making just a second Premier League start. Ngumoha broke the deadlock with superb individual quality. In the 36th minute, he burst into Fulham’s box and curled an effort into the far corner. Mo Salah doubled the lead four minutes later.
Liverpool’s attention now turns to PSG in the Champions League quarter-final second leg. The Reds trail 2-0 on aggregate and require the latest European miracle in the club’s history to overcome the current holders of the competition.
Plenty of fans would like to see Ngumoha unleashed against PSG - and that could happen. Liverpool head coach Slot said: “I think he’s ready. Now the question, of course, is: can he do this two days later again? That’s another question. But would he be able to play and perform at that level? Yeah. I play him because I see him as one of the players we are having. It’s not like he’s less or in the beginning of the season he was a young player getting some experience with the first team. But now he’s just someone I can pick for any game. So, also the one on Tuesday.
“But I think in general, that’s not to say about Tuesday, but in general expecting from a 17-year-old that he can play three games in six days, you could question if that’s realistic, especially for the ones that have been there in Paris and saw that intensity. That’s almost for every player too much, as you noticed today in my line-up, that I was aware of how intense two days ago was and how intense two days from today will be again.”
Ngumoha was signed from Chelsea in August 2024 for a compensation fee of £6.2 million. He was very much signed for the future - but has underlined he’s now ready for first-team action.
Asked if Slot showed another glimpse of what Ngumoha can do in the future, the Anfield chief said: “I think I’ve said a few weeks, maybe months ago, one or two months ago, that his playing time would increase because he got stronger and stronger, showed more and more when he came in, but also in training sessions, that it wasn’t only a nice trick, but there was more and more end product to what he did. There was more and more power to what he did, which is needed if you play against the best defenders in the world. And I don’t think anyone is surprised that at this moment of time he scored his first goal [of the season].
“He has such a special quality which you don’t see a lot in football anymore: dominating the one-v-one situation. And that’s exactly what he did when he scored his goal, making the ball free by twisting and turning and then hitting it in like a Mo Salah finish, I would say. It’s something I’m not surprised to see because in training sessions during the last month we saw more and more that he got more and more power to hit the ball as powerful as he did today. And yeah, that’s why he had now three starts in the last seven or eight games, I think. I don’t know exactly, but Wolves and Tottenham and this one. Pleasing to see that he did what we know makes him special, that’s dominating one-v-one situations.”
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