Andoni Iraola says Liverpool are working hard with "elite" Rio Ngumoha to help the teenager fulfil his huge potential. The Reds boss says the 18-year-old's ascent to the England ranks "is not something normal" for a player of his age, and he detailed what the club are working on at the AXA Training Centre to improve the youngster.
England breakthrough and LASK display
Ngumoha, who turned 18 on August 29, became the third youngest player to feature in a competitive England game - behind Jude Bellingham and Wayne Rooney - when he appeared as a substitute in a 2-0 win over Czechia late last month.
Ngumoha excelled on Wednesday night as the Reds beat LASK 6-3 in Austria. While Iraola says the former Chelsea winger's strengths are obvious, the head coach explained how the club are trying to make him a more rounded player.
What Iraola said about Ngumoha
"I think he knows that he is elite at certain things," Iraola said. "If you want to put someone one versus one then Rio is one of the best players you would choose because he is difficult to contain."
"There are areas he has to improve, especially without the ball. He has to get used to the demands of the Premier League in terms of duels and this happens when you come from the youth system."
"There you are used to being superior to the others and now you face very strong opposition and it is not easy to sustain those duels, but he is improving a lot."
"Body wise he is becoming stronger and I think he is in a good place. Obviously I had seen him play and we had played against him (at Bournemouth), but for us it is a privilege to have Rio in the team because he has just become 18."
"He has already played some minutes with the national team and that is not something normal. Normally you start playing with the national team when you are 20-something and you already have matured a little bit."
"We have to help him because luckily for us he is not the finished product. He can still improve because he is still 18 and I hope we can help him with these processes."
Barcola and next up
On Bradley Barcola, who scored a hat-trick for the Reds against LASK, Iraola said: "In the case of Bradley it’s a matter of him getting into his rhythm."
"He’s done almost a pre-season while playing official minutes with us and the more he plays the better he will become."
"With other players sometimes they have ups and downs, or you see the player in a lovely moment or other times struggling."
"Sometimes you see them showing it in training before a game and you feel: ‘Oof, he’s going to play well tomorrow.’ Sometimes it doesn’t happen but most of the time you can feel when they are in a good place."
Liverpool return to action when they are hosted by Brentford on Saturday afternoon.
