{"id":655777,"date":"2025-12-26T11:37:23","date_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:37:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655777\/"},"modified":"2025-12-26T11:37:23","modified_gmt":"2025-12-26T11:37:23","slug":"arne-slot-explains-why-rio-ngumoha-still-isnt-playing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/655777\/","title":{"rendered":"Arne Slot Explains Why Rio Ngumoha Still Isn’t Playing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rio Ngumoha<\/a>\u2018s lack of minutes for Liverpool have bemused some, but Arne Slot<\/a> has explained the youngster\u2019s situation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Reds haven\u2019t had a huge amount to enjoy this season, but Ngumoha\u2019s last-gasp winner away to Newcastle<\/a> was arguably the highlight of the campaign.<\/p>\n

The 17-year-old is yet to start a Premier League<\/a> game in 2025\/26, however, despite fellow wingers Mohamed Salah<\/a> and Cody Gakpo<\/a> struggling for form.<\/p>\n

\u2022 READ: Rio Ngumoha makes surprise Liverpool U21s return<\/a><\/strong> <\/p>\n

Ngumoha played for Liverpool\u2019s U21s in their recent 2-1 friendly loss to OGC Nice, and speaking to reporters, Slot explained why he has featured so little for the first team of late.<\/p>\n

\"LIVERPOOL,<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he has the most minutes of all 17-year-olds in the Premier League<\/a>. So that tells you how much playing time he gets, how special that already is for a 17-year-old,\u201d Slot said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat also tells you something about his quality, because it\u2019s not completely normal for a 17-year-old already to have as much playing time as he had.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it also tells you something about the availability in those areas. For the weekend that position\u2019s not my biggest concern, I would say.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cSo hopefully Cody is back, not sure but hopefully, Federico can play there, Florian can play there, so if he would be a player in a different position he would probably have even more chance to come in.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s the same for all the other players.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the game against Tottenham<\/a> I had four under-21 players on the bench, so that increases the chance for him to come in as well. So let\u2019s see.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Does Ngumoha deserve to feature more for Liverpool?<\/p>\n

\"NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE,<\/p>\n

There is plenty of sense in Slot\u2019s treatment of Ngumoha, not wanting to overplay a young player at this level as he matures.<\/p>\n

That said, there have been times when Liverpool have been crying out for his fearlessness in the final third, with others failing to fire.<\/p>\n

Slot has rightly handled Ngumoha with care overall, though, and asking him to inspire a struggling team is both unfair and unrealistic.<\/p>\n

But the winger has a huge future at Liverpool, with Slot lauding his qualities after his Reds debut at the start of the year. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time when he comes training with us we see what his qualities are,\u201d Slot said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe can dominate one-v-one situations, he is very quick on his feet, he can change directions really fast. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always happy if a player makes his debut that he shows what we see on the training ground as well, so the fans could see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chances should continue to come Ngumoha\u2019s way sporadically, with a start in the FA Cup<\/a> third round at home to Barnsley on January 12 making sense.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rio Ngumoha\u2018s lack of minutes for Liverpool have bemused some, but Arne Slot has explained the youngster\u2019s situation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,61654,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-655777","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-rio-ngumoha","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115785672214702149","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}