Slot Talk: Rio Ngumoha, Senior Attacking Threats, and AFCON

In his pre-match press conference ahead of Sunday’s Community Shield match against Crystal Palace, Liverpool boss Arne Slot spoke on his attacking options and his plans for the coming season.

Young Rio Ngumoha has been the name on everyone’s lips during the pre-season friendlies, with the 16-year-old attacker looking brighter and brighter with every outing. Slot was asked about the youngster’s development, and the positives and challenges that may come with the spotlight.

“[The spotlight] is sometimes also difficult, and you never know how an individual handles that situation,” Slot said. “It was a year ago when Trey Nyoni scored a goal, I think against Sevilla, when he was also maybe 17 – very young.

“They have an incredible chance to work and be every day around players like Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah and all these others to see what they do to be ready to perform every three days. That is a step these players definitely have to make, which is completely normal if you’re 16 or 17. It’s already nice if they can play once a week at a good level.

“We just try to develop them in the best way we can. We also have to take care of them because new players that come in that are 24, 23, 22 already experienced that the intensity levels are quite high either during the games or in training sessions, let alone for players that are 16 and coming through the Academy. We are aware of that but it’s been a promising start from him, like for Trey Nyoni as well because I think Trey also played a very good game at Anfield [against Athletic Club] three days ago.”

Slot also pushed back at any attempt to classify members of his squad as “senior” players when asked about his personnel use during the 2024/25 season:

“I don’t know what ‘senior players’ exactly means,” the Liverpool head coach told the assembled journalists. “Does that mean that you play for your country or you have a certain age? Because a player like Rio showed in the last few games he played for us that at senior level he can have an impact as well.

“I think, we think, we already have a lot of attacking power in our team when I think about Cody Gakpo, Federico Chiesa, Hugo Ekitike, Mo Salah, Jeremie Frimpong, who can play as a right-winger, and Florian Wirtz, who can play as a left-winger. I already feel I have a lot of attacking options in my current squad. But as always, as a club we are always looking at the chances in the market – but that can also be in the midfield or in the last line.”

Liverpool rotated in attack last season — in part due to injury and in part for tactical reasons — but Slot almost always relied on Mohamed Salah on the right wing. This season will therefore pose a new challenge for the boss: the African Cup of Nations takes place this season, and it’s happening smack in the middle of the jam-packed festive fixtures (it runs from December 21st to January 18th, though Salah’s Egypt has not always progressed to the latter stages of the competition).

Liverpool are currently scheduled to play Tottenham on the 20th of December, just before the competition’s official start, and are set to face Wolves, Leeds, Fulham, Arsenal, and Burnley during the AFCON date range. (Naturally, any domestic cup ties are yet to be scheduled.)

Slot was asked how he plans to approach this challenging Salah-less window, and the Dutchman suggested that recruitment decisions were made with the competition in mind.

“We brought in Jeremie Frimpong because we think he can play as a right full-back but I also think and feel he can play as a right-winger,” Slot said. “I, we, did think about the fact that we’re going to miss Mo, I think as a maximum for six games – but that’s quite a lot in the Premier League, especially if you see how well he did last season.

“Signing Jeremie Frimpong was for multiple reasons but one of them was also that he could replace Mo if Mo is not there. There are other options for me to replace Mo with as well – but Jeremie is definitely one of them.”

Slot was not, however, forthcoming as to who he views as other options to play in Salah’s position.