Arne Slot has handed 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha his Liverpool debut for the FA Cup clash with Accrington Stanley, which left him with “a smile on his face.”
Ngumoha is one of eight players to come into the side against League Two opposition in Saturday’s third-round tie, becoming the club’s youngest-ever FA Cup player.
It comes as something of a surprise given the players he is in competition with – Federico Chiesa, for example, starts on the bench – but it serves as a marker of how highly he is viewed within the club.
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“It’s always special if young players make their debut,” Slot told ITV.
“No matter which country you are in, especially if you’ve been a player yourself, which I was, you know what it means for a player.
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“There’s a smile on my face. He’s a young kid still who is with us for half a season, trained mostly with the U21s and sometimes with us.
“Every time he’s with us he was not afraid to do what he’s good at, which is taking on one vs. ones. I hope he will show his quality today.”
Ngumoha has gone on record to outline his eventual goal to win the Ballon d’Or, with Slot responding: “He’s at a club where players can win [it].
“Let’s wait, but that’s far, far, far too early to talk about that of course! First he has to play a good game today.”
Seven senior players were given the day off entirely, with Virgil van Dijk, Mohamed Salah and Alisson among those rested, but Slot still named a strong side.
“I think if you look at the players we start, almost all of them haven’t played that much,” the head coach said of his changes.
“It’s also an opportunity for them. They are not many options to given them playing time.
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“The one that has played quite a lot is Szoboszlai but he’s been out ill for numerous days, so he missed a few games. That’s why we started him.
“The reason [Trent Alexander-Arnold starts] is Conor Bradley comes back from a hamstring injury, two days ago we played a game, came back late from London, so I didn’t see it was the right thing to do today.”
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