Adrian Durham has said that England manager Thomas Tuchel has had a ‘nightmare’ by not including Rio Ngumoha in the Three Lions squad for the World Cup.
The Liverpool winger made his senior debut for his country in the weekend win over New Zealand and earned glowing reviews from the UK media for his 45-minute performance in Tampa.
However, having not been included in the provisional 55-player list which was submitted to FIFA last month, he’s precluded from being called up for the tournament even if some players in the final squad are struck down by injury between now and the day before England’s opening match against Croatia on 17 June.
In his debrief from the game in Florida on Saturday, Durham lamented Tuchel’s decision to omit Ngumoha from the provisional World Cup squad, thus depriving the 17-year-old of the opportunity to play in the competition this summer.
The talkSPORT presenter said: “We’ve learned here that Thomas Tuchel has had a bit of a nightmare with Rio Ngumoha. He was the best player on the pitch. He was fantastic.”
Durham added: “Ngumoha has taken his chance, but he can’t be picked for the World Cup, so Thomas Tuchel looks a little bit foolish. He played in 29 games for Liverpool this season. It’s not like Thomas Tuchel hasn’t seen him. We know what a livewire he could be.
“From Michael Owen in 1998, we know that if you’re raw and teenage, you can actually do something special on the world stage. Thomas Tuchel has missed a trick. Rio Ngumoha is the best right winger England have got and he’s not even going to be at the World Cup. That’s something we learned today.”
Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
Whenever a teenage player bursts onto the scene with some eye-catching performances, there can be a danger of overhyping them too early and then seeing them struggle to live up to those unfairly high expectations.
Perhaps that’s why Arne Slot was cautious with his use of Ngumoha in the Liverpool first team, but ultimately the 17-year-old was playing too brilliantly to be dropped, starting our final three matches of the season and being the one bright spark in a dismal run-in to the campaign at Anfield.
It would’ve been a gamble by Tuchel to include the then-uncapped teenager in the World Cup longlist, but the Reds winger still has more senior experience than Theo Walcott did when he was a shock selection for the 2006 finals in Germany at the same age.
While part of us would’ve loved to see Rio showcasing his exceptional talents on the global stage over the next few weeks, it’s probably for the best that he won’t be playing at the tournament, especially from an LFC perspective.
While there’ll be intense scrutiny on the England team at the finals in North America, Ngumoha will have a well-earned holiday before returning to the AXA Training Centre and getting acquainted with Andoni Iraola’s methods in time for the start of the club season in August.
Barring cruel misfortune in the future, we’re convinced that the winger’s time at a major international tournament will come.
Welcome to our Live Comments section, where new comments will appear automatically
I think he is right we don’t want to burn the youngster out
Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *
Notify me of follow-up comments by email.
Notify me of new posts by email.
