Bobby’s secret plan. Get Minamino back to scoring goals so he can take the mantle of ripping Arsenal apart.
Hate to be the one to say it, but it’s not happening.
I wish I was wrong, but he’s lightweight and lacks the killer instinct. Compare to Jota, who’s a yard dog. I just don’t think he’s going to develop that at this stage.
Too nice 
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Last two games I thought here is your chance but he hasn’t done anything for me.
Unlike Origi who also doesn’t do much to help the play he doesn’t even come up with a vital goal.
Jota took advantage of his bench starts in his first season.
At this point I’m thinking is it more beneficial to see Kaide Gordon play in say the FÃ Cup or from the bench when the front 4 aren’t available.
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He doesn’t even look good enough to be a squad player for us. We only paid 8m for him so I guess expectations would be low but I was hoping to see more from him. He’s had a few opportunities now and nothing has changed. I think it’s time for us to consider our options.
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It’s strange to remember how him and Haaland were dubbed two big talents at Salzburg before leaving their club at roughly the same time.
Even though the Norwegian had already a higher reputation than Minamino at the time, the latter hasn’t had the same curve of development than Haaland by any stretch of the imagination. Obviously, it was always going to be more difficult for him, with lesser playing time as a squaddie, and the leap from the Austrian league to the PL was a gigantic one to take. But is he better now than when he arrived? Maybe marginally so, but not in a decisive way.
He’s not a bad player and displays the right attitude on the pitch when he comes on, but I’m coming to terms that it’s not happening for him with us. Hopefully I’m wrong.
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Not sure I agree, I think Haaland has developed a bit but mostly it’s been the ability to do at a harder level what he was doing at a lower level. His performances didn’t take a step back when he moved leagues. It was just continuous top class. Minamino needed to adjust after the change in league and still isn’t performing here like he did there. He may never do that. It’s similar to VvD and Wanyama I think. Both absolute monsters in Scottish football, ran the place, dominant. Both went to Southampton, Wanyama was an OK player and went to Spurs where he was a bit hit and miss and struggled with the stepping up both times. VvD went to Southampton and did exactly as he did at Celtic. Them came here and did exactly as he’d done at Celtic and Southampton. I think some players find their level they can be effective, even seeming borderline world class at, but start looking lost if they move up levels past that. Others are world class and it doesn’t matter what level or opposition is involved they’ll always look world class because they are.
Hindsight is 20/20, I feel there are too many issues behind his stalled growth since moving to Liverpool:
- His physicality, this I have argued since the beginning.
- The huge gap in competitiveness between Austrian and English leagues.
- The huge gap in statures between Salzburg and Liverpool.
- COVID
I think Takumi is a very good player and he would have developed more if there was some intermediate steps like Mane (Southampton) or Haaland (Bundesliga).
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Is physicality really an issue? Maybe I’m wrong, but Jota doesn’t seem much more physical than him and yet he looks like a fish in the water in the PL when compared to Mina.
Completely agree on all your other points.
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It’s about upper body strength I think, the ability to protect the ball and bounce off player. Jota had years in the league to adapt to the demands.
Look at Salah at Chelsea v’s now, he’s like a different person. Proper beast now.
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I’m wondering if he’s yet another case of someone that the coaching staff rates a lot better than fans do. So far, he’s always been quite well-favoured by them, so he must be doing something right in their opinion…
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I read somewhere that Takumi is (still) the most lightweight player in our squad.
I remember Klopp saying (about Morton) that he needs to bulk-up for the rigors of PL.
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Probably not, that’s your spin. He got dropped for a 17 year old and a midfielder, so to me is way down the pecking order and this was his time to shine.
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I think Haaland was the big talent and Taki was already old enough not to be a talent anymore, but an interesting player. Haaland is also a rare example, Taki is more the norm. It should be difficult to go from the Austrian league straight to PL champions. For once (maybe not the last time, doesn’t have to be), we decided to take a player like that immediately before him going to a mid-step in Germany or wherever, does well and is suddenly much more expensive. I think it was a cheapish punt, didn’t quite work out (so far), no big deal.
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‘So far’ - Do you seriously think it will work out?
It seems to me that he’s had numerous chances and has never looked like he’d be good enough, even as a back up.
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No, it’s no big deal, especially as he has proven to be largely worthy of the eight millions the club invested into him, even if he’s not the success we’d have hoped for. He’ll be easily resold with a profit when we come to that point.
No, I don’t think it will. I just said so far because you never know, he might improve. But I don’t think he will, we’ll probably just him here and there, mostly when we have to and then hope to sell him.
Yeah, but I mean… there’s the money/business part and then there’s also the football part, which also consists of time invested in someone. But luckily for us, he wasn’t needed more than we wanted him to be. It’s impossible to get all transfers right (or spot on), we decided to take a little gamble.
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Yeah, that’s how I see it as well. It could have worked better, it didn’t. I still don’t think that he’s a bad player for us, just not first team or regular rotation level.
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So pretty bad then. If he’s not even that then in all honesty, what is he doing here? Leave alone the physical nature of the game he hasn’t shown he has the technical ability either.
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For the remaining 15 minutes of a game, he’s ok I think. But yeah, not much more than that.
The only hope would be for him to suddenly cross a threshold and improve beyond his current level. But at this stage, given his age and the time he has been with us, I think that it is quite unlikely to happen.
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