Memo to Thomas Tuchel. Take Rio Ngumoha to the World Cup. Arne Slot might not fancy him and Tuchel is unlikely to deviate from his sense of order. Nevertheless, since Ngumoha is playing fantasy football, so shall I.
Think about it. At 17, few opponents will know much about him. Neither does Slot, you might argue. This was only Ngumoha’s third start of the season. Even allowing for inexperience, in a season of disruption, injuries and the decline of Mo Salah, to keep a kid with his feet on the bench feels like neglect.
And when it came to making a change with 25 minutes to go, it was Ngumoha’s number that was inexplicably raised, evincing jeers all around the ground.
Ngumoha’s pass for Ryan Gravenberch’s goal equalled the number of assists by overlapping full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong, and Liverpool coughed a combined £70m for them.
Ngumoha brings trickery, pace and caprice. Lamine Yamal played 50 times for Barcelona before his 17th birthday. He made is full debut for Spain aged 16 and 50 days. As the saying goes, if you are good enough you are old enough.
This is not to equate Ngumoha with Yamal just yet. Only to make the case for investing in the preternaturally gifted. Apart from Gravenberch’s goal, a spectacular wallop inside six minutes, Ngumoha was the one source of real hope in another disjointed Liverpool display.
Hauling him off was a terrible waste from Slot (Photo: PA)As well as his assist, Ngumoha lit up the left side, his appetite for running at defenders causing panic in the Chelsea rearguard. At one point Ngumoha, twisting back on himself through 360 degrees, sucked five defenders into his web and still managed to get his pass away.
Though he favours his right foot, the left serves him well enough, allowing him to throw defenders off balance and cut to the byline.The pass to Gravenberch was hit with perfect pace, facilitating the deft touch and power finish.
Ngumoha, who has represented England 35 times from U-15s to U-19s, looked at ease in this company. Of course he wouldn’t start for England, but what an option he would be to crack a game wide open against tired legs late in matches, much like Chelsea counterpart Cole Palmer in fact.
Absurdly, Palmer’s inclusion in Tuchel’s squad has attracted scrutiny during this period of unfettered Chelsea decline. He has not been at his effervescent best, yet even a half-cock Palmer is an upgrade on most.
Palmer was at the centre of Chelsea’s rehabilitation at Anfield, his movement, touch and vision gradually wresting control from the home team as the first half wore on. Were VAR recalibrated to allow fractional transgressions that do not confer any advantage, Palmer would have been on the scoresheet with his rifled effort at the start of the second half.
His ability to float ghost-like between the lines centrally as well as out wide offers Chelsea and England the option to cut teams open through the middle, a point of difference rarely utilised by the national team.
The point edged Liverpool closer to Champions League qualification and ended a run of six-consecutive defeats for Liverpool. End-to-end contests of this nature, replete in flaws and inconsistencies, are manna for the neutral and torment for the partial.
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The result offered its own judgment on two teams that have fallen below their own expectations and standards, neither good enough to put the other away.
The deployment of full-backs as wingers, Frimpong for Liverpool and Mark Cucarella for Chelsea, sacrificed creativity for industry, and made even more peculiar the choice of Slot, also booed at the end of the game, to remove Ngumoha, the most dynamic player on the pitch.
Moreover, adjudicator Ally McCoist made Cucarella the man of the match! What do I know?
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