‘Diaz who?’ – Liverpool fans hail teen prodigy hailed as ‘the real deal’
Liverpool fans have been left wowed by the performance of an upcoming star at the club during their pre-season friendly with Athletic Bilbao.
The Reds are continuing their pre-season preparations with a double header against the La Liga side to give minutes to the majority of Arne Slot’s squad.
The matches also give academy and fringe players the opportunity to impress the manager ahead of the new season which begins at home to Bournemouth in 11 days time.
Slot has been busy in the transfer market spending over £200million on transfer and the Dutchman still wants to add Newcastle United striker Alexander Isak to his squad.
Fans excited by latest Liverpool prospect
It took only two minutes for 16-year-old Rio Ngumoha to score against Athletic Bilbao at Anfield to put his side ahead in the match.
Darwin Nunez then added a second just minutes later before an own goal gave the Reds a commanding three-nil lead at the half-time interval.
On their social media account Liverpool called Ngumoha’s goal an “incredible finish” and the comments underneath exploded with fans hailing the youngster as the next big thing.
One fan commented “Luis Diaz who?” after Liverpool sold the Colombian winger to Bayern Munich less than a week ago.
Ngumoha form a boost for Slot
Having sold Diaz, and with the potential departures of Harvey Elliott and Fedrico Chiesa, Slot may have been thinking about dipping into the transfer market again for a new winger.
The form of Ngumoha in pre-season though potentially means Slot can afford to not sign a new player and instead give the 16-year-old more first team minutes in cup competitions.
| Apperances | 18 |
| Goals | 1 |
| Assists | 4 |
His goal against Athletic Bilbao was a fine run and curling finish, showing the pace and composure the youngster already possesses.
This pre-season has been a success for the youngster and Liverpool fans clearly want to see more from him, with some even suggesting Cody Gakpo’s place in the team is under threat.
Gakpo is still currently first choice down the left flank, but Slot will have a stronger hand to choose from thanks to Ngumoha’s form.
It just remains to be seen whether Isak joins Liverpool’s forward line and then only sorting out the future of centre-back Ibrahima Konate would be on Slot’s to-do list.