{"id":394143,"date":"2026-04-12T02:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394143\/"},"modified":"2026-04-12T02:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T02:51:08","slug":"like-a-mo-salah-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/394143\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Like a Mo Salah finish’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arne Slot compared Rio Ngumoha to Mohamed Salah after the 17-year-old set Liverpool on the way to a 2-0 victory over Fulham<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Ngumoha opened the scoring with a fine strike before old hand Salah secured three much-needed Premier League points at Anfield.<\/p>\n

It was Ngumoha’s first goal since a dramatic late winner at Newcastle in August and his first in front of a home crowd.<\/p>\n

Liverpool manager Slot said: “He\u2019s not only the long-term future but also the near future.<\/p>\n

“I said one or two months ago his playing time would increase because he\u2019s got stronger and stronger.<\/p>\n

“He\u2019s shown that it wasn\u2019t only a nice trick but there was more and more end product to what he did, and more power, which is needed if you play against the best defenders in the world.<\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t think anyone is surprised he scored his first (Anfield) goal. He has such a special quality you don\u2019t see very often in football anymore, dominating the one-v-one situations.<\/p>\n

“That\u2019s what he did when he scored his goal, making the ball free by twisting and turning and then hitting it in like a Mo Salah finish.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s pleasing to see that he did what we know makes him special.”<\/p>\n

Liverpool\u2019s victory bought Slot some respite from the pressure that has grown throughout an underwhelming season and intensified particularly after heavy losses to Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain in the last week.<\/p>\n

Slot must now decide whether to start Ngumoha in Tuesday\u2019s challenging Champions League return against PSG at Anfield, when the Reds will attempt to overturn a 2-0 deficit.<\/p>\n

\"<\/p>\n

The Dutchman said: “I think he is ready. The question is can he do this two days later? Would he be able to play at that level? Yes.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s not like at the beginning of the season when he was a young player getting experience of the first team. Now he is someone I can pick for any game, so also Tuesday.”<\/p>\n

Slot added, however, that midfielder Curtis Jones was doubtful after being forced off against Fulham with a groin injury.<\/p>\n

Ngumoha\u2019s 36th-minute strike, followed by Salah\u2019s 256th goal for the club four minutes later, rewarded Liverpool for a dominant first half.<\/p>\n

Fulham rallied after the break but were unable to pull one back to set up a nervy finish.<\/p>\n

Cottagers manager Marco Silva said: “The game was decided in five minutes and our approach was not aggressive enough on and off the ball.<\/p>\n

“We gave Liverpool the chance to build up their attacks too easy. That was the reason why they had the chances and were in control of the game.<\/p>\n

“The second half was completely different. We created much more chances as well but we were not ruthless enough, as with a goal we can create a different scenario.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arne Slot compared Rio Ngumoha to Mohamed Salah after the 17-year-old set Liverpool on the way to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-394143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}