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Former Liverpool star Dietmar Hamann has backed Rio Ngumoha to become a starter for the Reds this season - even after the club’s busy summer in the transfer market.
The past few months have seen a major overhaul take place at Anfield following last season’s title triumph. While a number of big names have departed, including the likes of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Liverpool has certainly not held back in finding their replacements.
The club broke the Premier League transfer record twice during the summer as Florian Wirtz, Hugo Ekitike and the deadline day arrival of Alexander Isak caught the most attention.
Indeed, the $169 million signing of the latter is seen by many as a potentially decisive moment in this season’s Premier League title race, with Liverpool already being made the favorite to defend its title before making a perfect start to the season, including a 1-0 win over expected challenger Arsenal.
But while the club’s new signings have grabbed many of the headlines, Arne Slot may have already had a secret weapon up his sleeve - and one that has already yielded big results.
Ngumoha is building quite the reputation after impressing during pre-season, and his dramatic late winner against Newcastle looks as though it might be the first step toward him getting even more chances this season.
The teenager, who only turned 17 last week, has been named in Liverpool’s Champions League squad, and Hamann is backing him to earn a regular spot in Slot’s side, even among the Reds’ new galaxy of stars.
“Rio Ngumoha is clearly very talented, turning 17 after the Newcastle game. He performed well in pre-season, scoring and assisting goals,” Hamann told Adventure Gamers.
“The manager showed great confidence in him by bringing him on for the last five or six minutes in a very feisty game at St James' Park.
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“For him to score the winning goal there is a fantastic story. I believe he'll now get more minutes as he needs to play and learn. Training daily with players like Mohamed Salah, Dominik Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Ekitike, and Alexander Isak is invaluable.
“Potentially, he could even become a starter for Liverpool. It's still early, but I'm sure we'll see more of him this season.”
Liverpool.com says: You don't want to put too much pressure on him at such a young age, but it's hard not to get excited about Ngumoha after what we've seen of him so far.
He looks every inch a star, and he will surely get more opportunities this season. Being named in the Champions League squad tells you all you need to know about how highly rated he is by Slot, and we can't wait to see what he does over the course of the campaign.
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