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Gary Lineker drops Kylian Mbappe remark after 'special' performance from Liverpool star

Liverpool youngster Rio Ngumoha impressed on his first Premier League start in a 1-1 draw with Tottenham, with Gary Lineker seeing similarities to Kylian Mbappe's playing style

Gary Lineker has heaped praise on Liverpool winger Rio Ngumoha and drawn comparisons to Kylian Mbappe after an outstanding individual display in Sunday's 1-1 stalemate against Tottenham.

Ngumoha, 17, was given his maiden Premier League start by Arne Slot for the clash with Spurs at Anfield. It's fair to say the youngster seized the chance with both hands, shining for the Reds down the left flank and appearing a threat almost every time he received possession.

Whilst Ngumoha didn't find the net or provide an assist during the match, he gave Spurs right-back Pedro Porro an absolute nightmare and the Reds seemed far less threatening when he departed the field.

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Jamie Carragher offered Ngumoha particular acclaim on co-commentary for Sky Sports, labelling him "brilliant" and acknowledging you "can't stop" him in one-on-one scenarios.

Now, former Everton and Leicester striker Lineker has offered his verdict on Ngumoha and suggested he recognises parallels to Real Madrid's Mbappe.

Speaking on the Rest Is Football, Lineker said: "You're always slightly wary of getting ahead of yourself, but you recognise special talent when it arrives and he looks to me the most likely since Wayne Rooney to absolutely be a superstar. I'm going to go off piece here to a different game, but Rio Nguomha, my word!

"You'd have [Max] Dowman on the right, the future looks bright! Wow, he was incredible. It was his first start in the PL and again, I don't want to get carried away, I'm not comparing him, but I'm saying that he's got that stop-start sharpness of Mbappe.

"I'm not saying that he's Mbappe because he's one of the greatest players, but he's got enormous potential. He wasn't scared to take people on, Porro didn't know which way he was going to go and then that clever threaded pass through, he went very close a couple of times.

"I thought he was very special, I'm surprised he went off actually."

Ex-Manchester City defender Micah Richards believed the game shifted when Ngumoha was substituted. The Reds were leading 1-0 through Dominik Szoboszlai's first-half free-kick by the time Slot decided to substitute Ngumoha in the 64th minute, and Spurs managed to equalise late on as Richarlison found the back of the net.

Richards said: "I thought the game changed when he went off. He was pushing Spurs all the way back and then Spurs stayed in the game and got their goal. I thought he was the player of the match by far.

"I've been in that position, Pedro Porro, you know when someone's got the better of you and he keeps going, we're shouting, 'just keep giving the ball to him, let's see the battle'. Then you're thinking, is he going to go back into the mode of what us pundits say is robotic and start getting it and coming back. But he didn't and that was the most exciting thing where he just wanted to keep going and going with conviction.

"On another day, he could have had two goals and a couple of assists. I thought, overall performance for someone so young was very good."

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