Lewis Steele: Young star “makes defenders panic and retreat”

Nottingham, England – Anfield’s most decorated era has been built on the certainty of Mohamed Salah tormenting right-sided defenders, but on a ragged night at the City Ground it was a 17-year-old understudy who supplied the electricity that dragged Liverpool to a 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest.

Alexis Mac Allister’s 73rd-minute strike settled the scoreline, yet the post-match conversation centred on substitute Ngumoha, whose introduction flipped a turgid contest on its head. “He makes defenders panic and retreat,” Daily Mail reporter Lewis Steele wrote of the teenager, a verdict instantly validated as Forest’s back line dropped five yards without a tactical cue, spooked by the winger’s willingness to run directly at them.

Slot’s side had mustered no shot on target in the opening 45 minutes, the eighth time this Premier League season the Reds have failed to test an opposition goalkeeper before the break. “The first-half was really poor… but the second-half was much better,” the manager admitted, bluntly acknowledging a flaw that could cost Liverpool when the calendar narrows to knockout-style title run-ins.

Ngumoha’s cameos are becoming more than morale boosters; they are mounting evidence. Slot confirmed the winger has logged more Premier League minutes than any other 17-year-old this campaign, a statistic that underlines both the player’s readiness and Liverpool’s need. With Salah last scoring in the league in early November and Cody Gakpo also labouring through a lean spell, the timing of the youngster’s emergence feels less like coincidence and more like necessity.

The teenager offers chaos, not yet end-product, but in a system predicated on disrupting defensive shapes, chaos translates to currency. Every slaloming dribble forces double teams, frees overlapping full-backs and rekindles the pressing tempo that had gone flat.

Slot now faces the classic dilemma between loyalty to experience and the reward of momentum. Starting Ngumoha would not diminish Salah’s historic status; rather, it would reprise a club tradition in which competition sharpens icons, from Rush and Dalglish to Mané and Salah himself.

Liverpool left the East Midlands with three points and more questions than answers, but for the first time in weeks the path forward carries a sense of possibility wrapped in teenage fearlessness. If the Reds are to keep pace with Manchester City and Arsenal, the solution may lie in the boots of the boy who makes defenders retreat.