Welcome to The Radar, a Sky Sports column in which Nick Wright uses a blend of data and opinion to shed light on need-to-know Premier League stories. This week: 🔺Ngumoha's stunning stats🔺Vuskovic's key role for Brighton🔺A player to watch this weekend A seat in the Gtech Community Stadium press box last weekend offered a close-up view of Rio Ngumoha's game-changing talent. The 18-year-old played at a different speed to everyone else, a blur of stepovers and bewilderingly quick changes of direction.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player Liverpool were trailing when he was sent on early in the second half for the injured Jeremie Frimpong but ended up claiming a vital win, inspired by the irrepressible skill and drive of a player whose final action was to draw the foul for Vitaly Janelt's red card. Janelt had little hope of catching him fairly as he tore towards Brentford's box from inside his own half. Three days later, Villarreal couldn't even get close enough to foul him as he followed up his cameo in west London with an electrifying start at Anfield.
Aged 18 years and 52 days old, Ngumoha became the third-youngest player in Champions League history to provide two assists in a single game after Warren Zaire-Emery and Theo Walcott. Villarreal doubled and even tripled up on him. First, he jinked inside and clipped a delicate, diagonal cross straight into the path of Ronald Araujo at the back post.
Then, he danced to the byline and put the ball on a plate for Alexis Mac Allister. Robbie Fowler, a former Liverpool prodigy himself, of course, called it a "statement performance" from the teenager. Daniel Sturridge raved about his "God-given ability".
Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher labelled him a "future superstar". His total of nine successful dribbles in the game took him to 18 in total in this season's Champions League, putting him six clear of Barcelona's Lamine Yamal, the next player on the list. His one-on-one ability has been evident since his arrival on the scene last season, when he marked his Premier League debut with a stoppage-time winner against Newcastle before making a further 28 appearances in all competitions under Arne Slot.
His development has gathered pace under Andoni Iraola and his numbers have been similarly strong in the Premier League. Since the start of last term, his average of 4.47 successful dribbles per 90 minutes puts him ahead of even Manchester City's Jeremy Doku. He is something of an outlier in terms of his efficiency.
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