Steven Gerrard and Jermaine Pennant both make the same plea to Arne Slot after Wolves humbling
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Steven Gerrard and Jermaine Pennant have both called for Arne Slot to hand Rio Ngumoha a starting berth when Liverpool face Wolves in the FA Cup on Friday night.Round 1 of this week’s Molineux double header between the two teams went the way of the home side, who secured just their third Premier League win of the season with a stoppage-time goal that James Pearce diplomatically described as a ‘mess’.It was another game where the 17-year-old was brought on in the second half to replace Cody Gakpo, who endured yet another frustrating night in front of goal, and two former LFC teammates now believe that the teenager should get the nod on the left wing when the teams resume battle later this week.Gerrard and Pennant both call for Ngumoha to start on FridaySpeaking on TNT Sports after the game, Gerrard stated: “He has to start Ngumoha now. He’s coming on and doing more in a short space of time than Gakpo is doing in 65-70 minutes, so he deserves to start now.
He’s got to start the kid on Friday night.”Meanwhile, Pennant aired similar views on X as he posted: ‘Rio now must start on Friday night. AGAIN did more than Gakpo when he came on than what Gakpo did the whole game.
You know why he did more? [Because] he goes to the byline, he cuts inside, he’s not predictable. If every single fan [is] thinking it…’(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)How did Ngumoha and Gakpo compare on Tuesday night?While there was some willingness from the Dutchman to run at the Wolves defence in the first half last night, it was by and large another game which passed him by, and he probably cost Curtis Jones a goal when inadvertently blocking the midfielder’s effort from point-blank range shortly after the interval.In his first Premier League outing to last for than 20 minutes, Ngumoha was lively yet again, and he was unlucky not to score with a curled shot that Jose Sa did brilliantly to tip onto the post.The figures from Sofascore (see below) compare the impact of the two wingers at Molineux, with the numbers in brackets representing their averages per minute played for each metric.