Ex-Player: Takumi MINAMINO

I really like Taki. I hope he’s a success at Soton and comes back to us next season.

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What’s his private life got to do with it?

Cos he put 1 in and Div hasn’t :wink:

:laughing:

Oh Edwards, aren’t you a cheeky one. I go to bed and you shift Takumi out.

Not sure how to feel about the deal. Takumi will get playing time and may return to claim his place. But I fear we may have seen the last of him.

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Hope Taki gets game time at Soton and that it all works out.

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Would be gutted if ya had his name put on the back of a shirt now though… or in this pandemic, on the back of your PJ’s :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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A word of warning to all the staff and players at Southampton: you’ll need to be quick to beat Taki to the buffet.

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Good luck Takumi.

Hopefully he gets a good run of games under Ralph and can build up his body strength then come back next season a better more physically ready player.

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Not been impressed myself. He has not done enough when given the opportunity. More energy then execution.

Having said that Origi must be counting his lucky stars.

I started to think how many players have been here longer than Origi. Could only think of Henderson and TAA.

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This one makes sense but I am amazed that Origi is above him in the pecking order.

It’s clear with Minamino he needs a run of games, and he isn’t going to get that here, not at the moment anyhow. But if luck he plays well at Southampton and comes back in the summer, probably when Origi will be let go.

Having said that we’ll have Jota back then and Elliott back off loan so who knows.

Seems a good bloke and never really been disappointed with his performances, he never set the world alight but I think people were expecting goals galore off him and he never really looked that type of player (more of a Bobby than a Mo perhaps, not a direct comparison but you know what I mean).

I think it was a bad time for him to join a club in a foreign country too.

Best of luck to him and hope we see him back in the future

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Positive move for all parties, makes sense.

Southampton’s way and especially system they play gives him opportunities to find his place. Either in a 4-4-2 or 4-2-2-2. Ideally, probably as a second striker alongside Ings.

Che Adams has been a so-so experiment, more cold than hot so far. So there’s something to try and grab there. Maybe even compete for those inside off the sides positions.

Nothing to be sorry about, it is how it is. Sometimes it’s a still a huge jump from RB Salzburg to Liverpool, no matter how well he’s taught to play the game, etc.

Ideal scenario is that he does well, raises his profile and value and we get a decent profit down the line. That was always a high possibility if he struggles with the pure level, because of the cheap price.

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Southampton will be covering Takumi Minamino’s wages, as well as a loan fee which could rise to £500,000. The Saints wanted an option to buy the Japan international this summer but that was rejected as Jurgen Klopp still sees a future for him at Anfield. #awlfc [the athletic]

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I think he could look very good in that Southampton side, linking up with Ings. Fingers crossed he can help take a few points off our rivals.

Takumi is a mystery, an enigma, a puzzle, a riddle, a…well…you get the idea.

I don’t think he had any fitness issues during his year at Anfield. On the pitch he always tried and didn’t just lumber around (like Origi). His talent level is quite adequate too. So the only problem I can see is his physicality.

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I wonder if he’s also found it difficult to settle in the UK. I think he can speak some German, so he’d be able to communicate with Klopp, but I suspect he couldn’t speak any English when he arrived here. That would make things difficult with the rest of the squad. Then the pandemic happened, just after he arrived in Liverpool, so being in lockdown wouldn’t have helped him to adapt either. All this is bound to have an affect on his form.

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I read earlier today he is basically sat at home in a flat pretty much all the time he’s not training and speaks to only his team mates via Zoom… Whilst I get footballers get paid a lot of money, it can’t stop you being miserable as fuck in a new country etc.

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I think this is part of the problem, imagine moving to Japan, a country where the majority of people don’t speak English, you don’t have any family or friends there and don’t speak Japanese. It’s a pretty daunting prospect.
Think back to the night when the team was presented with the Premier League trophy. During the celebrations, Minamino appeared to be on the periphery of of everything. I’m not suggesting the rest of the squad deliberately excluded him, but if you can’t communicate with people because of language barriers, it makes life difficult.

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Me and the better half were commenting on it the others were trying to pull him in and get him bouncing and celebrating along but he just seemed so shy, lost and embarrassed. Can understand as he hadn’t really settled and done much but he definitely hadn’t settled in with the lads and wasn’t comfortable yet.

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…OR
he wouldn’t/couldn’t follow Jurgens instructions to the letter once out on the pitch…!

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