Read head coach Slot’s assessment of the evening at his post-match press conference below…
On Ngumoha’s performance and goal, and if it’s ‘another glimpse of what he can do in the future’…
Yeah, but not only the long future, also the near future. I think I’ve said a few weeks, maybe months ago, one or two months ago, that his playing time would increase because he got stronger and stronger, showed more and more when he came in, but also in training sessions, that it wasn’t only a nice trick, but there was more and more end product to what he did. There was more and more power to what he did, which is needed if you play against the best defenders in the world. And I don’t think anyone is surprised that at this moment of time he scored his first goal [at Anfield].
He has such a special quality which you don’t see a lot in football anymore: dominating the one-v-one situation. And that’s exactly 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, I would say. It’s something I’m not surprised to see because in training sessions during the last month we saw more and more that he got more and more power to hit the ball as powerful as he did today. And yeah, that’s why he had now three starts in the last seven or eight games, I think. I don’t know exactly, but Wolves and Tottenham and this one. Pleasing to see that he did what we know makes him special, that’s dominating one-v-one situations.
On whether Ngumoha is ready to start a game of the magnitude of Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night…
Yeah, I think he’s ready. Now the question, of course, is: can he do this two days later again? That’s another question. But would he be able to play and perform at that level? Yeah. I play him because I see him as one of the players we are having. It’s not like he’s less or in the beginning of the season he was a young player getting some experience with the first team. But now he’s just someone I can pick for any game. So, also the one on Tuesday.
But I think in general, that’s not to say about Tuesday, but in general expecting from a 17-year-old that he can play three games in six days, you could question if that’s realistic, especially for the ones that have been there in Paris and saw that intensity. That’s almost for every player too much, as you noticed today in my line-up, that I was aware of how intense two days ago was and how intense two days from today will be again.