Arne Slot says he would have no qualms starting Rio Ngumoha against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night after the Liverpool winger scored in Saturday's win over Fulham.
The 17-year-old registered his second goal of the campaign, and his first for the club at Anfield, when he fired past Bernd Leno before Mohamed Salah made it 2-0 shortly after to send the Reds four points clear of Chelsea, who are one place back in sixth ahead of Sunday's visit from Manchester City.
Asked if Ngumoha had played himself into contention for the quarter-final second leg against European champions PSG, who are 2-0 up from the first leg in Paris last week, Slot said he would have no issue starting the teenager given his quality.
"Yeah, I think he is ready," the Liverpool head coach said. "Now I think the question, of course, is can he do this two days later? But would he be able to play at that level?
"Yeah, I play him because I see him as one of the players we are having. It’s not like he is less or at the beginning of the season, he was a young player, getting some experience with the first team.
"Now he is someone I can pick for every game, so also the one on Tuesday. But in general, expecting a 17-year-old can play three games in six days - because we are unfortunate we have Wednesday-Tuesday fixtures from UEFA - you could question if that is realistic.
"Especially the ones there in Paris saw that intensity. You noticed that in almost every player in my line-up, I was aware how intense two days ago was and how intense two days from today will be again."
Slot added: "It is not only the long future but also the near future. I said a few weeks or months ago that his playing time would increase because he got stronger and stronger and showed more and more when he came in, that it wasn’t only a nice trick but there was more and more end product to what he did, more power which is needed if you play against the best defenders in the world.
"I don’t think anyone is surprised he scored his first (Anfield) goal. He has such a special quality you don’t see very often in football: dominating the one on one. Twisting and turning and hitting it in, like a Mo Salah finish, if you like.
"In training sessions during the last month we saw he got more and more power to hit the ball as he did today.
"That is why he had three starts in the last seven or eight games and it pleasing to see that he did what we know makes him special: dominating one-v-one situations."
