Arne Slot had one critique of Rio Ngumoha’s eye-catching performance in Liverpool’s win in Japan | OneFootball

It seems that Rio Ngumoha can do little or no wrong at the moment, but Arne Slot found something to keep the Liverpool starlet in check!

The 16-year-old was on the pitch for less than half an hour of the Reds’ 3-1 win over Yokohama F. Marinos on Wednesday but still ended the night as probably the most talked-about player from the match, even outdoing debutant Hugo Ekitike.

The teenager rounded off the scoring in style at the Nissan Stadium, dribbling nearly half the length of the pitch and jinking past one opponent before firing to the net from just outside the penalty area, a goal which showcased his immense talent and self-confidence.

Slot had one critique of Ngumoha in win over Yokohama

Slot unsurprisingly complemented Ngumoha’s show-stopping display when speaking to the media afterwards, although he referenced one note of room for improvement when the forward had the opportunity to set up a scoring chance for Alexis Mac Allister or Curtis Jones.

The 46-year-old said (via liverpoolfc.com): “Rio again showed the quality he has and that’s nice for us because we have a lot of very good players.

“To get some very good players through the academy is always helpful and always gives energy to a team as well. It’s always nice to see young players from 16, 17 or 18 years old already impacting a game.

“There was also a moment in the game where he should have squared it to Macca or Curtis, so [there were] also learning parts for him. If you are 16 and you can impact the game like he did, that’s definitely worth a compliment.”

(Photo by Kenta Harada/Getty Images)

Ngumoha may have left Slot with a dilemma for the coming season

At Ngumoha’s age, there’ll naturally be moments within matches where the right decision isn’t taken, but that’s all part of the learning process for a player who’s still getting acclimatised to first-team football.

You can be sure that Slot has mentioned to him privately about the chance to tee up Mac Allister or Jones, but it’s clear that the Liverpool head coach is overall delighted with the impact that the 16-year-old is making with the senior side.

Having also stood out against AC Milan in Hong Kong, and after the sale of Luis Diaz to Bayern Munich, there have been calls among some fans on social media for the teenage starlet to be fully integrated into the first-team squad for the new season and to be regarded as the immediate left-sided backup to Cody Gakpo.

The coaching staff at LFC won’t overburden Ngumoha with too much responsibility at his age and may be conscious of keeping the reins on him given the justifiable increase in hype around him, but when you have such a special talent, you don’t want to withhold it too much.

A Premier League debut at some stage in the next 12 months seems inevitable, and he’ll surely feature against Athletic Bilbao next Monday and possibly in the Community Shield as well.

As ever, we fully trust Slot’s judgement on striking the right balance between giving Ngumoha’s incredible talent the platform to shine, without asking too much of him too soon.