Arne Slot has backed Rio Ngumoha to handle the size of the occasion as Liverpool host Paris Saint-Germain for a place in the Champions League semi-finals.
Ngumoha scored his second goal of the season on Saturday as the Reds beat Fulham 2-0 at Anfield and calls to start the exciting winger more regularly have been growing for a number of weeks.
Liverpool host European champions PSG on Tuesday night faced with a 2-0 deficit from the first leg in Paris and Slot believes Ngumoha, who doesn't turn 18 until August, won't be overawed against the current holders.
"Yeah I think he can [cope with this game]," Slot said. "First of all because of his personality, he doesn’t get distracted that soon. I think since he's been [a senior], everyone who knows his history there is expectation around him for many years.
"He has always been able to focus on football to become better, to become stronger and to be ready at 16 years of age, to score his first goal and at 17 to have multiple starts for the first-team of Liverpool.
"The second thing is his quality, he has shown he is able, at the highest level - the Premier League and Champions League - to be able to take one-v-ones on and make it difficult for the defenders he is facing.
"He has done a very good job in managing what comes to him now, but it also helps to have so many experienced players around him, which he does in the dressing room."
Slot also played down the expectations on Florian Wirtz, who, at £116m, was part of a big-spending summer that saw Liverpool overhaul their Premier League title-winning squad significantly.
The Dutch coach, instead, outlined why Wirtz will be part of a longer-term project following last year's high turnover in the playing staff, adding: "What we did after Jurgen Klopp left, 18 months ago, we always knew that it would be a transition.
"Because we knew it would be the end of a cycle and we always knew we would have to recoup money, which we did by selling 10, 11 or 12 players I think.
"And we have spent that money on young, very talented players that get their times to build on the same cycle as the last seven or eight years has been with the players who have already left or will do at the end of the season.
"So that is why we brought in Florian in, Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike, Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong; young, talented players to create a new cycle. Therefore, we need a lot of players to leave to find the money to buy them.
"We didn’t add Florian Wirtz to the team that played PSG [last season]. We bought him to be successful in the future, which could be the near future or the mid to long-term future. And we bought him and others - young players - to create a new successful cycle and the sooner that happens the better it is.
"I am convinced that either tomorrow or next season or the season after soone he (Wirtz) will, like Milos, Alex, Jeremie, like Jeremy Jacquet - another 19-year-old we are bringing in this summer - will have special moments here at Anfield.
"Tomorrow is the first opportunity for him and the others, but we didn’t bring him in for this single, particular game."
