It\u2019s interesting that Arne Slot\u2019s commitment to bringing \u201cjoy\u201d to the masses \u2013 a virtue he extolled before his side stunk the place out in their defeat to Wolves on Tuesday \u2013 doesn\u2019t extend much beyond fielding a very exciting teenager.<\/p>\n
Slot was \u201calmost annoyed\u201d in his pre-match press conference<\/a> when it was suggested he might take a more attacking approach in a second game against Wolves in four days.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t approach the game by saying, \u2018OK, in the first 70 minutes, we don\u2019t want to have the ball or we don\u2019t want to attack.\u2019 No, we do. That it doesn\u2019t lead to anything, that we completely agree on.\u201d<\/p>\n In search of reasons for the malaise<\/a> which has been the feature of so many of Liverpool\u2019s games this season Slot proposed \u201cthe opponent being fitter at the start of the game than the end\u201d or perhaps an increase in \u201curgency\u201d from his side.<\/p>\n Neither reason will have placated Liverpool fans watching another horrible first half of football at Molineux. The slow side-to-side passing made for painful viewing; a 17-year-old was the only source of relief from the melancholy.<\/p>\n \u201cHe has to start Ngumoha now,\u201d Steven Gerrard said after the teenager\u2019s midweek cameo<\/a>. \u201cHe has to start him because he\u2019s coming on and he\u2019s doing more in a short cameo in a short space of time than Gakpo\u2019s doing in 65, 70 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n After planting a seed of uncertainty in the mind of Jackson Tchatchoua early on, Ngumoha had the Wolves wing-back precisely where he wanted him for the rest of the evening, backing off into his box, not knowing whether his opponent would be going left or right and typically failing to stop the Liverpool star no matter his decision.<\/p>\n The difference in confidence, speed and \u2013 most notably \u2013 the aura of Ngumoha compared to Mohamed Salah was marked. While Salah is now an almost comically easy winger to defend as if you get touch tight he does nothing, opposition players dare not risk getting close to Ngumoha for fear of being utterly embarrassed by him.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s been so, so poor tonight,\u201d Stephen Warnock said in whatever the opposite of a commentator\u2019s curse is, roughly a minute before Salah did well to hold the ball up on the counter-attack before Andy Robertson\u2019s stunning striker broke the deadlock, and no more than three minutes ahead of Salah scoring himself from a brilliant Robertson cross.<\/p>\n