Rio Ngumoha Must Work On His End Product – John Barnes

Liverpool legend John Barnes has urged Rio Ngumoha to stop worrying about dribbling 5 players. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

Asked what Ngumoha needs from the upcoming 2026-27 campaign, Barnes said that the youngster should focus on playing regularly at club level.

Stressing that his dribbling ability is key, John added that having an end product is more important.

His words, “The next step is for him to play regularly.

Because of course he didn’t play regularly and we automatically assumed that all of a sudden he was going to be playing for England and be scoring goals and be the best player in the world. Unfortunately we do that to our young players too much. And he’s now not even in the team.

So therefore we have to allow him to develop and to grow slowly. And to slowly get into the team and cement a place in the team first before we start talking about him being a main player for Liverpool or a top player for England.

You want him to do what’s right for the team. It’s okay expressing himself and beating five players and not having any end product.

So it depends on what you consider to be his game. Because of course he’s got to score goals. It’s okay just beating players all the time but then after beating players, beating players, beating players, how many goals are you going to score? How many goals are you going to create? So that’s how you’re going to be judged. Not how good you look and how many players you can beat.

So it’s not a question of reining him in. It’s a question of giving him end product and making him a valuable part of the team from that perspective.”