Liverpool's new boss Arne Slot promised that he would not single out any young players on the Reds’ pre-season USA tour, only to immediately break that vow after his side defeated Real Betis 1-0.
Dominik Szoboszlai got the only goal of the game as Slot tried out a new formation and drastic tweaks to Jurgen Klopp’s blueprint, but 17-year-old Trey Nyoni stole the show after an hour of action.
He replaced the injured Curtis Jones and played a big role in the goal, which was assisted by Mohamed Salah. But a classy performance from the youngster raised eyebrows from none other than his new boss.
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The day before taking on Betis, Slot promised that he would not get into discussions that could potentially talk up a young player, but Nyoni’s performance forced him to change his mind immediately.
“Someone else came in and he played quite well,” Slot cryptically said. “I said yesterday that I’m not going to name any youngsters who have caught my eye but you could see he comes in after 30 minutes for Curtis and you would expect that I meant him.
“He did really well today. He just turned 17 and his body is young so I think he needs some time to get stronger and hopefully he will be a bit taller as well. He found a lot of players in between the lines and there was also a great small pass for Harvey (Elliott). He did well, that’s a good thing because we know we have a lot of good players.”
Nyoni arrived at Anfield last year from Leicester after playing for the Foxes’ Under-18s as a 15-year-old, quickly included in first-team training by Klopp. He then became Liverpool’s youngest-ever player to make an FA Cup appearance in the 3-0 win over Southampton, going on to make a further impression on Slot.
“I think he did really well today but it was only an hour,” the Dutchman continued to gush. “Like I said, he did well. He was one of the reasons why we scored the goal, because he turned really quickly and [played] a spot-on pass in between the lines. And he was also involved in the biggest chance in the second half. So he did well.
“But he's just turned 17 and his body has to grow, and we are really careful with him. So he doesn't join every session and sometimes he goes out a bit earlier because he only turned 17 and you can see his quality but you can also see his body still needs some time to grow to play at Premier League level. But he showed some interesting things today.”
