Could SPECIAL Liverpool wonderkid make his debut vs Southampton? | OneFootball

Liverpool’s youth players have been making serious waves this season.

Tyler Morton has been part of multiple matchday squads, whilst Ben Doak, Lewis Koumas and Owen Beck are all thriving in their loan moves to the Championship.

Trey Nyoni, meanwhile, has been integrated into first-team squads in both the league and Champions League. And, again, he has been training with the first-team this week.

He has been joined in this endeavour by Rio Ngumoha and a returning Jayden Danns, who’s reappearance from injury is incredibly welcome.

Liverpool are quietly struck by a bit of an injury crisis at the moment. Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota, Federico Chiesa will all be absent tomorrow.

That will then make it almost certain that Conor Bradley will come into the starting XI in Alexander-Arnold’s place, leaving a free space on the bench that one of Nyoni, Danns or Ngumoha could be in line for.

The bench last time out against Aston Villa consisted of Vitezslav Jaros, Bradley, Joe Gomez, Jarrell Quansah, Kostas Tsimikas, Wataru Endo, Tyler Morton, Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo.

For those counting, when removing Bradley, that’s a right-back/centre-back, a centre-back, a left-back, two defensive midfielders, an attacking midfielder and a left winger. So who comes in?

Trey Nyoni

Initially, Nyoni stands out as the player most likely to make the bench. This is simply based on him being the only player out of the three to have featured in a matchday squad this season.

Yet he has been in two Champions League squads and also made a substitute appearance in the League Cup fourth round victory over Brighton.

Importantly, there is Endo, Morton and Szoboszlai on the bench who are higher in the midfield order. So whilst it would be in line with Slot’s philosophy of slowly exposing youth players to the experience of first-team matchdays, he would be a touch surplus to demands on the day.

But it's very possible that he could be involved considering he was training with the first team. He's a 'special' talent according to Jurgen Klopp and who better to be thrown in the deep end against than bottom of the league?

If he is involved he could be in line to make his Premier League debut for the club.

Rio Ngumoha

Ngumoha, meanwhile, is an incredibly exciting prospect who traditionally occupies the left wing.

Whilst Cody Gakpo is certainly ahead of him in the pecking order, it would be a good excuse to give Ngumoha exposition to a first-team matchday without the anticipation of having to use him at some point.

Yet it would be a very surprising inclusion given that Ngumoha is just 16 and the highest age group he has played in is the Under-19 UEFA Youth League games. Yet, as the old adage goes, if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.

Jayden Danns

Danns presents a very interesting proposition. He is the only player of the three who has first-team minutes for Liverpool, making two Premier League cameos last season, as well as seeing the pitch in the Europa League, League Cup and FA Cup - the latter of which he scored twice in just 27 minutes in.

Reports circulated that Arne Slot is interested in seeing what Jayden Danns can contribute to the first-team before a decision is made about whether to loan him out in January or not.

Most crucially, however, Danns is a centre-forward which, due to Diogo Jota’s injury, Liverpool don’t have a natural backup for on the bench. As a result, tomorrow’s game presents a fortunate circumstance in which Slot can put Danns on the bench without it being a headline-making debut opportunity and provide necessary cover.

The one issue is that it would be a bit of rush back into the squad as Danns has just returned from a stress fracture in his back that last saw him play in April.

Yet, the anticipation wouldn’t be for Danns to contribute any significant minutes at Southampton.

Nevertheless, if any of the three players can turn their first-team training sessions into first-team squad appearances it will be an exciting development for whomever Slot decides on.