17-year-old winger has shown he is talented and deserves a full league debut now
Liverpool youngster Rio Ngumoha has never started a Premier League game for the club he joined as a 15-year-old from Chelsea in 2024.
He has featured in nine league matches but never before the 70-minute mark, and only when Liverpool have been chasing a goal (he has started once in the FA Cup and twice in the Carabao Cup).
He came off the bench for Arne Slot’s side in their tough tie against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground, replacing Mohamed Salah and earning praise from Slot for his performance. Liverpool won 1-0 after Alexis Mac Allister got a foot to a loose ball to poke home in the final minutes of stoppage time.
It is not the first time that Ngumoha has been sensational off the bench. He came on as a substitute against Newcastle at St James’ Park in August, curling beautifully into the net in the last minute after a clever dummy from Dominic Szoboszlai, to earn Liverpool a 3-2 win over the Magpies.
The 17-year-old said he was hoping for more minutes this season.
“Hopefully soon – I just need to keep pushing and keep gaining the manager’s trust and hopefully that leads to more minutes,” Ngumoha said.
“I am learning a lot every day and playing with and training with some of the best players in the world. I can’t ask for much more as a young kid.
“So I just think I need to carry on improving, working hard in training and showing what I can do to the manager. I just try to help the team. It’s all I can do, just put balls into the box whenever the manager needs me.”
Ngumoha is a talented youngster with a lot of direct running and the ability to cause chaos in the box. His touches are assured and he is gifted in finding a man in the box. Throwing him on in a highly physical league with a lot of quality players feels like a huge challenge, but there is very little reason he cannot be given a run or two on the wings to start to with.
“He came on in the 77th minute and did more in 15 minutes than [Cody] Gakpo and [Mohamed] Salah had done up until that point,” pundit Jamie Carragher said about the youngster. “He needs more of an opportunity. He needs to be starting games.”
