Rio Ngumoha offers latest Liverpool glimpse as Arne Slot proven right - 5 talking points

Dominik Szoboszlai was heavily involved as Liverpool beat Barnsley, with Jeremie Frimpong and Adam Phillips also scoring in the FA Cup. This is what we spotted at Anfield.

Liverpool winger Rio Ngumoha during the FA Cup third round game against Barnsley at Anfield.(Image: PETER POWELL / AFP via Getty Images)

ANFIELD, LIVERPOOL // Though it wasn't always pretty and the scoreline was much closer than it needed to be, Arne Slot's Liverpool did get over the line to book a spot in the FA Cup fourth round, where it will face Brighton.

Goals from Szoboszlai and Jeremie Frimpong were enough of a buffer for the former to have enough confidence to attempt a backheel inside his own penalty area that spectacularly backfired. Adam Phillips, an ex-Liverpool youth player, was able to smash in from close range.

In what was a much closer second half than it needed to be until Florian Wirtz and then Hugo Ekitike netted late on, the Reds did hold on to progress into the fourth round. Here are the five things Liverpool.com spotted as the game unfolded.

Rio Ngumoha glimpse

There have been calls for Rio Ngumoha to get more chances, but Arne Slot explained ahead of the game that he needed to manage him carefully. After all, Jayden Danns has been missing for some time because of problems with being overplayed, the Reds boss said.

Ngumoha was put in from the start here — the exact kind of fixture that he should be used in — and he dazzled with his footwork at times, albeit without much in the way of end product.

He won't be in line to suddenly come into the team every week (that wouldn't have been the case even had he scored a hat-trick here) but there is clearly a supreme talent there to be unlocked. Off the bench, he is ready for longer cameos than he has been getting.

Rio Ngumoha of Liverpool during the Premier League match between Fulham and Liverpool at Craven Cottage(Image: 2026 CameraSport)

Strong side justified

Slot said before the game that he would be playing a stronger line-up than he did against Plymouth last season, when the Reds crashed out. A lesson learned? Maybe. It is also true that Liverpool is in a completely different circumstance here.

The FA Cup is comfortably the best chance that Liverpool has of winning a trophy this season. Given the lengthy injury list, it also doesn't have a great deal of options to choose from that it didn't select.

Jeremie Frimpong, given that he might be needed a fair bit for the remainder of the campaign in the absence of Conor Bradley, was a slightly surprising pick here, only in that Liverpool simply cannot afford for him to get injured.

He did well, though, and scored before being taken off and protected. Frimpong was arguably the stand-out from a Liverpool perspective, offering plenty of pace and quality in the final third.

With Conor Bradley sidelined, that can only be a good thing. With Liverpool not always the most convincing here, it was a good thing that there were as many experienced heads as there were. Slot was proven right with the players he picked.

Jeremie Frimpong celebrates scoring Liverpool's second goal against Barnsley at Anfield.(Image: PETER POWELL / AFP via Getty Images)

Dominik Szoboszlai heavily involved

Szoboszlai was really running the game (and had nonchalantly scored a screamer to break the deadlock) until his attempted backheel backfired.

"I don't like it at all from Szoboszlai," the former Liverpool midfielder Steve McManaman said. "You'd never do that against Arsenal or Manchester City."

It can only have been overconfidence. Szoboszlai was playing very well until that point and got back to it afterwards, but that was an embarrassing moment for the Hungary captain. For the neutrals and those in the away end, it did at least make things interesting.

Szoboszlai is becoming a rallying figure in the Liverpool dressing room. (Image: Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)

Federico Chiesa chance

Starting only his fourth game of the season to date, Federico Chiesa has barely featured for Liverpool in its starting XI. The Italian is still useful as a squad option, as he proved here.

He linked with Frimpong quite nicely at times as they tried to find combinations down the right-hand side. Chiesa's lack of pace acceleration was balanced out by the Dutchman's abundance of it.

Chiesa won't get loads of chances to start — that Liverpool has a Premier League team next in this competition probably hasn't helped him in that regard either — but he showed his technique here.

FA Cup priority

Barnsley is a point behind Plymouth in the League One standings — the Pilgrims being the team that eliminated Liverpool from the FA Cup last season — and just like at Home Park in February, Liverpool was made to work here.

This time, the outcome was different. Conor Hourihane and his players, though, can come away from this fixture with lots of credit. They should take plenty of confidence from being able to perform like this.

The Yorkshire side was defensively pretty good and in attack, capable of stringing together some nice moves. It was often lacking the final touch required to get the ball over the line, but looked good up to that point.

Adam Phillips of Barnsley celebrates scoring his team's first goal as Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool reacts(Image: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

Adam Phillips and Vimal Yoganathan — who both started the game — played for Liverpool's academy when they were younger. They certainly relished the chance to achieve a lifetime ambition and play at Anfield.

The former, Phillips, got the fairy tale story of scoring, albeit in very odd circumstances with the Szoboszlai error. The latter, Yoganathan, almost got an assist with a lovely cross into Davis Keillor-Dunn when he hit the post a couple of minutes in.

Ultimately, there was no fairy tale story for Barnsley as a team, though it did threaten. There was no shock in L4 as there was at Crystal Palace-beating Macclesfield earlier in the weekend.

Liverpool will face Brighton at Anfield in the fourth round. In a year when the Premier League title is beyond them and they are already out of the League Cup, this competition might need to become more of a priority. Step one: just about complete.