Not sure how it’s my own spin. He’s still seeing game time, and Ox was already getting chances there before, and even during the summer, when we could well have just sold Minamino on, but yet were pretty adamant about keeping him. Every single time Jürgen has spoken about him it’s always in the context of how highly they rate him.
Most of our midfielders got dropped for an 18 year old at the start of the season until he got injured, does that mean we’re selling them too?
We’ve got a cheap-ish forward who’s good at the pressing game we play, and who for the most part has been scoring pretty often and hasn’t been too bad. I don’t think they’re as quick to want to sell him as you might think.
Thought we were apparently open to the idea of a sale? It was the loan we were dead against as that by Southampton was pretty much the only real offer we got.
How is he seeing game time? We have Mane/Salah away and Origi injured and out of 5 games during that period he started 1. So yes you are spinning it favourably to defend the player.
Definitely not my recollection. Only thing I remember is Klopp talking him up with a back handed compliment of how great it was to have him on the bench to cover for 4/5 roles in emergency situations. But clearly not good enough to be 1st or 2nd choice in any of those roles judging by how often he is used.
Due to his contract length, low cost in fees/wages and versatility I’d probably keep him a little longer as there is likely to be at least 3+ outfield players needed this summer and there is no point pretending we can stretch to making improvements all across the board in one Summer. Probably 2 attackers and 2 midfielders as a likely need to be addressed already. Minamino could be replaced the following summer if he still hasn’t kicked on. Possibly internally by someone flexible from the academy breaking through like Bobby Clarke or Musialowski.
he’s the perfect bench player for what we need. can slide into the advanced MF role, or across the front line and is perpetually available. and at a low cost.
Let’s recognize his worth for what it is, and carry on. We will never have a bench of superstars and he’s not impeding the progression of academy prospects. He does a solid job, and likely gets along with everyone in the dressing room.
Why would he have started against Shrewsbury? He came on at half-time, which was probably always planned since he was just coming back from injury. The main problem for the rest of the games is that among the 3 of him, Jota, and Firmino, none of them are particularly suited to the right forward role, and of them, quite clearly Minamino’s the preferred one to get dropped.
He still managed to contribute to those games, coming on as a substitute to reduce the load on the others while helping to see the wins out.
EDIT: 45 minutes in the FA Cup, followed by the full match at home against Arsenal, 16 minutes (with a goal) against Brentford, 27 minutes against Arsenal away, and 30 minutes against Crystal Palace. First substitute in all the games except Arsenal away, when Matip was taken off at half time for Konaté.
Yes but no one’s going to take your interpretation of things seriously, given how you always twist them to suit your particular myopic agenda.
Pretty much what the coaching staff think I’m guessing. Not so much his cost, but also given the options we have at the moment, he does a pretty good job at his role.
All opinions on Minamino can change in an instant… One goal when we desperately need it in the last 5mins of a CL game… he could become a hero overnight with the £8m beginning to look like chump change in the same equation…
Keep him simmering until the end of the season and lets see what happens… Not only is the lad carrying the weight of his own aspirations and ambition on his shoulders… but he is carrying expectations no doubt from many other mini minamino’s (see what I did there) back home in Japan.!
Would be nice if he made his mark in Anfield folklore to be talked about in years to come…
But like I mentioned, lets see what happens
A perfect bench player for a team of our expectations is one who is reasonable aggrieved at not starting a big game. Not one who only plays when no one else is available and struggles to make an impact no matter where you play him. Fuck, if they want that they can pay me half Taki’s salary and save even more money.
I still hold out hope with Taki, but there comes a point where it doesnt matter how good a lad someone is, how well suited they are to the side, or how well they train. When picked eventually you’ve got to start doing it in the games. And even me someone willing to give him a very loose leash when he arrived is resigning myself to the reality that if after this long he isnt doing it,he is unlikely to ever do it
Your original statement “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”
No, the coaching staff don’t rate him better than our fans, otherwise he wouldn’t have started 1 game in 5 over a period 60% of our forward line was unavailable. Ahead of him was a 17 year old kid and a midfielder.
Another staunch “fringe” player defense, strange way to spend your time. Even weirder as no-one was even being overly negative. Is it because Origi is injured?
but what do you expect for £8mil? they got him on a bargain, doing their usual gamble (if it doesn’t work out, didn’t cost us much) and could even make a few bucks selling him for 10mil next year if he doesn’t improve
At the very worst of having to move him on, they’ve paid very little for his services where they’ve needed the salary space to sign the bigger contracts in the squad.
He’s fighting with Divock for minutes when that fella ever returns. If you’re expecting Taki to compete with Mo/Bobby/Sadio/Diogo then you’re having a laugh.
I get the point that we cannot be too disappointed in him or the situation. But we also have to judge these guys in absolute terms. The fact he is cheap doesn’t make up for the fact that two years after arriving he still has not come close to meeting the standards of first team player at a club with our expectations. We an use terms like bench or rotation, but a side that accepts that these guys are so much more of a drop off than the main players is one that isnt going to challenge for very much. That is us resting Torres for Voronin and scrambling to finish 4th
Palace got Olise for 8 million just as a comparison.
Taki’s hardly the perfect bench player because he’s not making an impact off the bench. As for being versatile, not really. Just because he’s played across the front line does not make him versatile, it would do if he played well. He’s terribly ineffective from the right. He’s been better from the left. As the ‘9’ we’ve seen very little from him.
He’s done well in the domestic cups and is one of the main reasons we are in the league cup final. It’s fair to say that. As for him being a serious Premier league or Champions League option there hasn’t been much to suggest that’s the case.
That looks good on paper but it’s overstating his impact. His 2 Premier League goals were in games already won and the other goals were in the league cup.
The telling bit is he’s only played 86 Premier league minutes despite being fit for 19 games. That tells us Klopp doesn’t trust him IMO.