Have a KitKat, @localny
If you can tolerate the bits of self-referring and self-admiring guff, this piece makes some very good points, in quite a brutally direct way, about his problems:
https://www.liverpool.com/liverpool...umi-minamino-liverpool-tactics-klopp-19439348
Here's an edited version:
Minamino does not have a strong positional sense. From the moment he arrived, he has struggled to fit into Liverpool’s carefully crafted structure. He has failed at two basic principles: Do not run alongside your teammate; do not stand in the same vertical strand.
Here he is in his Premier League debut against Wolves last January:
And here is now, against Brighton a fortnight ago:
That's just from the opening 20 minutes; the compilation runs on and on (look at the spacing/verticality of the rest of the team for an idea of the Klopp Rules).
It's the same issue. Sometimes, you're treated to both at once -- shutting down space for his teammate and taking away a passing lane by standing in the same vertical plane (which is a standard principle for a possession-oriented side and is how Liverpool beat the press).
And his body positioning has been, in general, brutal: He fails to play on the half-turn or to shield the ball, instead opting to receive it straight on -- a no-no at the top-level. By doing so, he is always taking an extra beat, gathering the ball from his feet, and so stilts the rhythm of the attack rather than injecting some verve of chaos into the proceedings.
These are not minor tweaks that need to be made or the result of a minutes-issues. These are fundamental flaws; the kind of flaws that have every chance of being even more exposed as he is moved over from the right-hand side (which was a whiff) into a more central, deeper-lying role.
Minamino’s role was and is always going to be different than Jota’s -- his value always indicated he would be a rotational option who, ideally, could spell Firmino as the false nine in certain situations and toggle between a couple of other positions. But that he’s rarely been given that brief suggests more about Minamino and his ability that it does his lack of luck in picking up minutes with the core group.
It’s been a calendar year now -- admittedly, a weird one; even more so for a player coming from a different country-- but that oomph, that spark that made Liverpool trigger his £7.25 million release clause has been all-but non-existent.
Moving Minamino to the eight spot isn’t a desperate, last resort. But it does indicate a manager who still does not know what to do with a player.
Minamino will get more time -- but we’re closing in on the point of no return: This is who he is, and that player, with those specific issues, is not someone a manager can rely on.
That seems fair, although I would disagree with the author that it's something he cannot improve. There's just a race to write off players. We surely knew he was not the finished article and needed development. Not easy when there's so little training time, but I wouldn't bet against Klopp making an effective player out of Taki.If you can tolerate the bits of self-referring and self-admiring guff, this piece makes some very good points, in quite a brutally direct way, about his problems:
https://www.liverpool.com/liverpool...umi-minamino-liverpool-tactics-klopp-19439348
Here's an edited version:
Minamino does not have a strong positional sense. From the moment he arrived, he has struggled to fit into Liverpool’s carefully crafted structure. He has failed at two basic principles: Do not run alongside your teammate; do not stand in the same vertical strand.
Here he is in his Premier League debut against Wolves last January:
And here is now, against Brighton a fortnight ago:
That's just from the opening 20 minutes; the compilation runs on and on (look at the spacing/verticality of the rest of the team for an idea of the Klopp Rules).
It's the same issue. Sometimes, you're treated to both at once -- shutting down space for his teammate and taking away a passing lane by standing in the same vertical plane (which is a standard principle for a possession-oriented side and is how Liverpool beat the press).
And his body positioning has been, in general, brutal: He fails to play on the half-turn or to shield the ball, instead opting to receive it straight on -- a no-no at the top-level. By doing so, he is always taking an extra beat, gathering the ball from his feet, and so stilts the rhythm of the attack rather than injecting some verve of chaos into the proceedings.
These are not minor tweaks that need to be made or the result of a minutes-issues. These are fundamental flaws; the kind of flaws that have every chance of being even more exposed as he is moved over from the right-hand side (which was a whiff) into a more central, deeper-lying role.
Minamino’s role was and is always going to be different than Jota’s -- his value always indicated he would be a rotational option who, ideally, could spell Firmino as the false nine in certain situations and toggle between a couple of other positions. But that he’s rarely been given that brief suggests more about Minamino and his ability that it does his lack of luck in picking up minutes with the core group.
It’s been a calendar year now -- admittedly, a weird one; even more so for a player coming from a different country-- but that oomph, that spark that made Liverpool trigger his £7.25 million release clause has been all-but non-existent.
Moving Minamino to the eight spot isn’t a desperate, last resort. But it does indicate a manager who still does not know what to do with a player.
Minamino will get more time -- but we’re closing in on the point of no return: This is who he is, and that player, with those specific issues, is not someone a manager can rely on.
I thought that too, but then their defender had slid in right at the point of his first touch so a first time shot may well have been blocked.
