{"id":539578,"date":"2026-07-13T17:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/539578\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T17:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T17:33:08","slug":"fpl-rising-stars-rio-ngumoha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/539578\/","title":{"rendered":"FPL rising stars: Rio Ngumoha"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ahead of the new season in Fantasy Premier League<\/a>, The Scout looks at players who could have a major impact on their team and the role they could play.<\/p>\n

The appointment of Andoni Iraola as Liverpool<\/a>‘s new head coach gives Rio Ngumoha the opportunity to make a big impact in the first season of their post-Mohamed Salah era.<\/p>\n

Similarly to the Reds’ new left winger Victor Munoz, Ngumoha has the pace, dribbling and ball-carrying ability that looks a perfect fit for the high-pressing tactic Iraola adopted while in charge of AFC Bournemouth<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although the versatile Ngumoha predominantly earned minutes on the left under previous head coach Arne Slot, he could well occupy the role on the right vacated by Salah’s departure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kind early fixtures<\/p>\n

Notably, Liverpool have one of the very best early schedules this season, which suggests managers could be rewarded by investing in their key attackers for the opening gameweeks of 2026\/27.<\/p>\n

Iraola\u2019s side avoid all of last season\u2019s top 10 sides across Gameweeks 1-4, visiting Newcastle United<\/a> and promoted Ipswich Town<\/a>, while hosting Nottingham Forest<\/a> and Fulham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This run of opponents is also shown by the Fixture Difficulty Ratings (FDR)<\/a>, a tool based on a complex algorithm developed by FPL experts, where the difficulty of each fixture is ranked from one to five, with one being the easiest possible match and five being the hardest.<\/p>\n

The Reds’ opening four fixtures have an average difficulty of just 2.5, according to the FDR.<\/p>\n

Liverpool’s opening four matches<\/p>\n

GW
\nOpp.
\nFDR*<\/p>\n

1
\nNewcastle (A)
\n3<\/p>\n

2
\nNott’m Forest (H)
\n3<\/p>\n

3
\nIpswich (A)
\n2<\/p>\n

4
\nFulham (H)
\n2<\/p>\n

*1=easiest possible fixture, 5=hardest possible fixture<\/p>\n

Strong all-round potential<\/p>\n

In terms of price for 2026\/27 Fantasy, Ngumoha’s total of two goals and an assist last season should ensure he comes in at no more than \u00a36.5m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The teenager only started five matches under Slot in 2025\/26, though, appearing a further 14 occasions as a substitute.<\/p>\n

When compared with his midfield team-mates Dominik Szoboszlai and Florian Wirtz last season, Ngumoha’s potential for both goals and assists fares very well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In terms of goal threat, his average of 40.9 minutes per shot and 59.5 minutes per shot in the box in 2025\/26 BOTH rank top in the analysis below.<\/p>\n

Although Szoboszlai had 71 shots last season, just 19 of them were inside the box – his average of 170.1 minutes per shots in the box was not far off being three times slower than Ngumoha.<\/p>\n

Ngumoha’s assist potential also holds up here, with the trio more or less identical when it comes to frequency.<\/p>\n

As Liverpool’s main set-piece taker, Szoboszlai created a chance every 41.0 minutes – an average matched by the teenager, despite his own lack of dead-ball duties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And when it comes to creating big chances – situations where a player is expected to score – Ngumoha comes out on top.<\/p>\n

Indeed, he crated a big chance once every 218.3 minutes, which was more than twice as fast as Wirtz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Midfielder comparison, 25\/26<\/p>\n

Mins per
\nNgumoha
\nSzoboszlai
\nWirtz<\/p>\n

Shot
\n40.9
\n45.5
\n46.9<\/p>\n

Shot in box
\n59.5
\n170.1
\n66.5<\/p>\n

Chance created
\n41.0
\n41.0
\n40.0<\/p>\n

Big chance created\u00a0
\n218.3
\n230.8
\n478.6<\/p>\n

FPL point
\n15.2
\n20.2
\n19.1<\/p>\n

Monitoring Liverpool’s pre-season friendlies will be vital, with the Reds one of eight clubs who are heading into 2026\/27 with a new manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Ngumoha can impress over the summer and secure a regular role, he can offer strong potential for both goals and assists in Iraola’s new-look attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ahead of the new season in Fantasy Premier League, The Scout looks at players who could have a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":539579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105,4277],"class_list":["post-539578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports","tag-text"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=539578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/539578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/539579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=539578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=539578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=539578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}