Gary Lineker compared Rio Ngumoha’s movement against Tottenham at the weekend to that of France superstar Kylian Mbappe.
The Liverpool teenager impressed on his first Premier League start for Arne Slot’s men as the Reds succumbed to a late 1-1 draw.
The Merseysiders were instructed to pay a minimum of £2.8m to Chelsea following a tribunal ruling (compensation for his training and development with the Blues).
Lineker was keen to draw attention to Ngumoha’s electric display at Anfield on Sunday.
“Rio Ngumoha – oh my word! I mean you have [Max] Dowman on the right… the future looks bright!” the 65-year-old spoke on The Rest is Football podcast.
“I mean – wow! He was incredible.”
Micah Richards agreed, “He was so good, wasn’t he?”
The former MOTD presenter went on to add: “I don’t want to get carried away – I’m not comparing him – but I’m saying that he’s got that stop-start sharpness of [Kylian] Mbappe.
“I’m not saying he’s Mbappe, because obviously he’s one of the great players, but he’s got enormous potential. He wasn’t scared to take people on.
“[Pedro] Porro didn’t know which way he was going to go. And then that clever little threaded pass through. He went very close a couple of times outside the post. I thought he was really special. I was surprised he went off actually.”
Richards went on to say: “Yeah, I thought the game changed a little when he went off, because he was pushing Spurs all the way back.
“Then Spurs stayed in the game and got their goal. But I thought he was the player of the match by far.”
The former Chelsea academy prospect recorded a rating of 7.5/10, according to Fotmob. However, we’re struggling to understand how the likes of Richarlison and Dominik Szoboszlai (beyond their goals) scored more highly.
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It’s far too much pressure to put on a young player’s shoulders at this stage in his career, but it’s certainly not hard to see why the teenager is drawing comparisons to the likes of Kylian Mbappe.
Against Tottenham, Ngumoha registered seven touches in the opposition box, completed all seven of his attempted dribbles and supplied genuine width on the left flank.
* Rio Ngumoha’s stats against Tottenham in the Premier League (via Fotmob)
His French counterpart at Real Madrid is likewise known for his world-class dribbling and explosiveness on the ball – but Ngumoha’s got some way to go to replicate his goalscoring record!
Still, we’d more than agree with Lineker and Richards that there is plenty of potential for Liverpool to take advantage of.
And to think we’ve secured Rio Ngumoha for only £2.8m (potentially up to a maximum of £4m) is just incredible.
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Has great potential, should have been played a lot more than he has which sums up slot. Reminded me of John Barnes yesterday, on that left wing, he has the same kind of physical attributes and balance as Barnes, if he gets anywhere near what barnes was at Liverpool we have a top player.
I was gutted when he was subbed off at around 60 minutes for a defensive approach with Jones coming on. Playing at anfield and dominating possession but trying to keep the 1 goal margin is abysmal.
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