Impressive Nyoni To Be Eased Into Liverpool First Team
Liverpool rising teenage star Trey Nyoni made headlines after stealing the show with his performance in the team’s first pre-season friendly against Real Betis in the United States of America on Saturday.
The 17-year-old highly-rated attacking midfielder of Zimbabwe descent played just 41 minutes in the Reds’ 1-0 win against Manuel Pellegrini’s Real Betis, but made a huge impact that left Liverpool fans in awe after coming on for the injured Curtis Jones in the first half of the match,
Nyoni helped to craft Liverpool’s solitary goal by sending a clever pass to Dominik Szoboszlai who played a one-two with Mohamed Salah before banging the ball in the back of the net to break the deadlock.
The teenage star was successful in 42 of his 46 passes (91%) and topped the rankings for passes into the final third (8). His vision and composure was unbelievable for a 17-year-old. He was all over the pitch making it difficult for Real Betis to find space to manuver forward. He posted an overall rating of 7.0 over 10 according to Sofarscore, making him one of the best performers in the match.
Liverpool fans will be desperate to see more of him in the coming season, but the talented youngster might feature sparsely for the first team as he needs to be introduced into the highly competitive environment of first-team football at a slower pace.
“He has only just turned 17 and his body still has to grow. We are really careful with him. He doesn’t join every session. You can see his quality. He needs some time to grow to play at Premier League level but he’s an interesting player, ” said new Reds coach Arne Slot- who took over from Jurgen Klopp.
Although it is a good sight to see a youngster of his age performing incredibly on top level, but Slot is right – it is also a big risk to throw these youngster straight in as this could contribute to Injuries.
Even the best player in history, Lionel Messi, was eased into the first-team over a period of a few seasons.
We don’t need to over-rely on these youngsters as they burst on the scene. Patience is needed. Remember what happened to Bill Antonio at KV Mechelen, the former Dynamos teenage star was a sensation when he broke into the first team, but the over-reliance on him brought along a long-term injury that he is still nursing up to now.
Slot, in other way seem to be very aware of this trend and is not willing to rush Nyoni whom he rested after the Real Betis game.
Liverpool will play Arsenal, Manchester United and Sevilla during their preseason training.
