Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk has praised Mohamed Salah for helping Rio Ngumoha develop into one of the club’s most exciting young players following his impressive performance against Villarreal.
The 18-year-old registered two assists as Liverpool came from 2-0 down to beat the Spanish side 4-2 in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
Ngumoha has impressed on the right wing this season despite typically playing on the opposite flank, with Van Dijk revealing how Salah’s experience has helped the youngster adapt.
Van Dijk believes Liverpool’s senior players have played an important role in Ngumoha’s progress, highlighting Salah and Cody Gakpo as two particularly influential figures.
“A few senior players [have helped him],” the Liverpool captain said.
“I would say [Cody Gakpo] is definitely part of that. But everyone has that role in order to help the youngsters in the group, the players who have not had so much experience.
“Everyone is chipping in but for him to work with Mo last year was obviously massive as Mo was one of the best wingers at the club and experienced everything so why not soak in all the information and show it on the pitch and show your own qualities?
“I think he has shown it this season but there is still much more to come.”
Ngumoha was a constant problem for Villarreal’s defence at Anfield, using his pace and movement to help Liverpool recover from their disastrous start.
“He’s pretty electric at times and he showed it again,” Van Dijk added.
“He was a complete threat constantly and their defender had a tough time.”
Liverpool captain admits mistakes against Villarreal
While Ngumoha earned praise for his attacking display, Van Dijk was critical of his own performance.
The Dutch defender made an early mistake which allowed Georges Mikautadze to open the scoring before Sergi Cardona doubled Villarreal’s advantage.
Liverpool eventually fought back through goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Ronald Araujo and Florian Wirtz, but Van Dijk admitted he had made life difficult for his teammates.
“It was a terrible start,” he said.
“I think the saying is you fight an uphill battle and as a defender it is pretty difficult to come back from it. I tried but it was a bad day at the office personally but we did it together with 11 players. We turned it around and that’s the main thing.
“Unfortunately in life these things can sometimes happen. Fortunately it didn’t happen too many times in my Liverpool career but tonight I was not the best.
“But we won and it’s not about me, it’s all about us. We got the three points.”
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