Probably just the wrong league at the wrong time.
He was certainly worth the punt at 8m, sometimes they work out sometimes they don’t, it seems Endo will work out better for a fraction more to be fair.
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A bit more than double more.
Not sure about the wrong league, but timing for the lad was a fucking nightmare. Arrived when the squad was in middle east for CWC so not given the proper welcome by the players. Few weeks later covid hits and we go into lockdown meaning he never got the chance to get embedded into the squad. We then go on to win the league but he wasnt used as originally planned so felt a bit of a fraud celebrating a title ge didn’t feel he contributed too. Then got loaned out to Southampton as the coaching staff were unsure if he was physically up to the rest of the squad
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Go back to the game against Saltzburg in 2019 or so where they gave us absolute fits. Their front 4 was Halaand (came on as a sub and scored), Dom, Hwang and Taki. We now have a better sense of how good Dom and Halaand really are, and we’re starting to see Hwang finally click at Wolves. I dont remember the return game as much, but at least in the 4-3 Taki was the pick of the bunch for them and so the success of the others suggests that Taki’s lack of success with us was unlucky.
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Not good enough for us. No shame, actually.
Worth a punt at the fee we paid. Initially I believed he could be a player for us, but nah. We needed better than the likes of Shaqiri, Origi and Minamino to backup the mighty front trio.
Glad to see him doing well at a somewhat lower level.
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As I said wrong league at the wrong time.
I’m not saying he can’t do it in the PL but at that time was it right for him? Probably not with everything going on.
In all fairness, he should be judged on what he actually cost us to bring him in - £8m.!
When we have academy players that are worth more than that then… and securing £25m for a young Rhian Brewster… sure, Tiki was most definitely punching above his weight - but the guy was a trier, and put all his talents and efforts onto the field for us… It was a shame for him, and us, it never really clicked. Not the fault of anyone really.
He seems to be enjoying his football now, which is also good to see
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It’s one way of looking at it.
There’s the business side of the deal and the football player who spends time with you and “blocks” a place for someone who could’ve been better (even at a higher price).
You can have deals where you can say “ah, bargain or very low risk”, but not get much of enough from that player on the pitch.
I’ll give an example:
Shaqiri: better transfer than the player.
Thiago: better player than the transfer.
If you understand what I mean.
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I don’t agree with this point of not good enough for us.
Origi largely delivered the goods when it was asked of him. Is he a great player, no. But for us, he delivered more often than many of our current strike force and with many key goals.
Similarly, Minamino may not have played much but he was one of the key forces behind our domestic cup runs when he did play. Our front 3 just largely stayed healthy.
I think Klopp would have been happy to retain them both if they were satisfied with their role.
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Taki has been a very good squad player just like Kostas. Both did cost a small fee also.
Kostas is more than happy with his role. Taki wasn’t. Fair play to him. His form at Monaco proves him right.
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Largely… nah.
Origi had some moments and some big goals (that is to say, since his 18/19 rise from the dead). But his cult is greater than what he produced for us. We used him from the start only when the schedule was tight, picked games when we could tolerate him starting and often tried to “hide” him on the left of attack. His game became what, winning duels (if he was bothered to give his all that day), making a few runs and most importantly, nick a goal. Everything else, he was like a player less on the pitch for us.
In his first two seasons he showed good promise, but unfortunately due to a number of reasons, he went off the track. If you asked me between 2015 and 2017, I would’ve said, yeah, Origi is material to be at Liverpool for the next years (but then we quickly went up a few levels since 2017). We trusted Solanke ahead of him in 17/18, who was also not good enough at the time.
Well, there’s a reason why Minamino didn’t play more than he did. I’m not saying “not good enough” like he simply cannot be on the pitch for Liverpool, but… not good enough to merit more. We can use other words to say the same thing, but there’s no need to beat around the bush.
I was hoping Taki would be at least a Yossi type of player, but for our style of play and structure, it wasn’t enough. Being part of a pressing game at Salzburg in Austria is cute, but that’s levels below us. Monaco now is also a level below, which is why he’s doing better. I’m thankful for his service, behaviour and mostly cup glory. He can have that.
Our front 3 was healthy (don’t even want to imagine how it would’ve been otherwise), but let’s not act like we were absolutely calm with our backups, like we weren’t worried and hoped that it would somehow work out with what we had. Who knows, maybe we would’ve won more if we had better. But I know, even the absolutely biggest and richest clubs don’t have 22 equally top players.
Those were clearly players we didn’t seriously count on, otherwise they would’ve both played more and remained longer in more important roles. It’s really as simple as that.
Some of them remained a few years, because when you’re at the top, it’s harder to sell them. You cannot change a huge number of players every season. But it was always like “well, we don’t have better, we’ll have to work it out until we get new ones” rather than “Bobby’s off form, but that’s alright because XY off the bench is maybe ready to come in and take the chance, threaten his position”.
Minamino might just be suited more to another league. No harm in that , there are plenty of players who don’t suit in the PL despite being very good players.
Good on him for doing well.
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And quite a lot of times, managers see that theres a player there but due to reasons sometimes beyond the manager’s control, are unable to give them more time on the pitch.
The first three were largely fit during their time. Even if Minamino performed well in training , even if better than say Bobby… why would a manager disrupt a stable unit without reason (especially as the performances of the top three were pretty good)
The only thing to do in that situation is to let Minamino go. It wasn’t going to be good for his career to hold on to him.
Try again! 
Or try harder!
seems like you’ve forgotten this, changed Origi’s career trajectory completely:
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I haven’t forgot about it, I had his injuries in mind when I said “unfortunately due to a number of reasons”.
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exactly, and we both remember how long he was off for after that. He struggled getting back into the team with Bobby coming in at 2015, Mane at 2016 and then Salah at 2017. How do you displace any of those three players out of our lineup? Have to be world class, literally.
He was a Rodgers player who Klopp used very effectively as a super-sub, he scored some incredibly key goals for us and left after his contract was up.
nothing more, nothing less. He can be a cult hero for us…
Brace vs Barca in THAT comeback
winner vs Spurs in CL final…
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I liked the transfer to bring him in.
There was already a good argument not to leave him on loan at Lille in his first season under contract with us, rather start working with him immediately. But that’s going way back.
He was actually good in the 16/17 season again, but picked up another injury just as it seemed like he might reach another little level. But we massively improved then with Bobby’s central role and Salah in from 2017.
Injuries haven’t helped, but they were not the only factor either. His evolution stalled at a certain point. And at times, he didn’t look too motivated either. His loan at Wolfsburg was a bit shit, didn’t do well enough there to attract more interest at least from the Bundesliga.
You don’t have to be world class, it’s not like there are not levels and layers between our front trio and what we mostly had in backup positions. And I mean, why not a player who is just below world class. Now the situation is different as our main attack still has question marks apart from Salah, but we have 5 forwards who provide genuine quality.
Like I said, it’s hard and practically impossible to solve all needs all the time. We managed the best we could and won multiple things.
Left after his contract was up yeah, but we quickly gave Matip and Origi 5-year deals straight after Madrid. I wasn’t a fan of those decisions already at the time, questioned them. Matip obviously still had some very good periods, mainly the 21/22 season.
if we get Origi a 5yr deal straight after Madrid he’d still be here. it was a 3yr which I think was pretty fair.
But we’ve derailed the Taki thread long enough. moving on…Taki was a good filler for us and got some key goals but couldn’t crack our front line consistently
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23 games, 1590 mins, six goals and five assists. 
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