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Minamino

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rurikbird said:
I think Minamino is a #10, but not an "old-fashioned" one. It's interesting that you brought up Valeron, who is still one of the "purest" examples of a #10 due to the clear way Depor's attack was structured: a scorer/battering ram up front, two quick wingers and Valeron in the middle conducting the orchestra... Fast forward to 2019 and the era of the pure #10 is decisively over; the best representatives of this style – James Rodriguez, Ozil, Dmitri Payet etc – are all struggling to stay relevant. The new #10 are different. They are often hybrids between AM and another position: winger (Hazard, Coutinho), centre-forward (Firmino, Tevez, Dybala) or CM (Isco, De Bruyne), which allows them to find their niche in tactical systems not designed with #10s in mind. The biggest difference is the defensive contribution – the new #10s are expected to be the first line of defense and are given the sort of tactical assignments that would make poor Juan Carlos collapse with exhaustion after 30 minutes.

At Dortmund, Klopp had a perfect representative of this style in Kagawa – a player with the work-rate of a CM, aggression and movement of a forward and vision of a playmaker. Firmino epitomizes the same qualities at Liverpool, but he had no one to offer cover or alternative for him in this physically demanding role – until now. Minamino might not be an exact Firmino clone, but it's clear to me that his role will be similar – to facilitate and string together moves, release Salah and Mane in space and press, press, press. He can dribble and he can score, he can do a job on the wing if needed – but Klopp isn't buying him primarily for those qualities.

In the grand scheme of our attacking play, arguably his most useful quality will be the ability to hold up the ball, using that low center of gravity to put his body between the ball and defender, ride the challenges and use the threat of a quick turn to keep defenders from getting too close – very different from the likes of Valeron and Aimar who would tumble to the floor at the point of physical contact. If you look at his goals, Minamino actually scores a lot of tap-ins or other finishes from close range – that's because in the final phase of the attack he moves and thinks like a striker. He is a bit like Son in the way he is always willing to dribble and run directly at a defender, backing himself not only to outfox the opponent, but also to be first to any deflection and turn it to his advantage thanks to his quick feet, agility and again low center of gravity. And as for defensive work, I think he will "vacuum" the attacking middle third of the pitch just as thoroughly as Fabinho cleans up the heart of midfield.

So to summarize, bargain price aside, I'm very excited about adding a player with this kind of talent, drive and hunger in January – I think he will add fresh fuel to our title challenge. He looked every bit like a Klopp player from the minute I saw him and I am certain he'll become a popular figure at Anfield very soon.
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Sounds like the best version of what Lallana could have been.
 
King Binny said:
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[article]
Klopp has previous for working with Japanese players having turned Shinji Kagawa into a star during their time together at Borussia Dortmund.

Asked about the 30-year-old, who is now with Real Zaragoza in Spain, he said: “I loved working together with Shinji Kagawa, loved it.

“It was a great experience for me because I had not a great idea about Japanese football before I met Shinji.

“When we saw him on video and signed him from watching him on video, we thought we [knew] but we were not 100 per cent sure.

“When he was part of training for the first time and we went in the dressing room, all the coaches were hugging each other: “oh my God, we got a super player!"

“It was two years only with Shinji and you know it better than I do, [the] attitude of Japanese players is outstanding, workrate outstanding, football smart, technical-wise really good usually.

“The players I saw [are] really dynamic and just nice people, trying to adapt to the different styles was a great experience. I'm still following his career, obviously, still try to [see] how he's doing."
[/article]

[article]RB Salzburg attacker Takumi Minamino has long wanted to play in the UK.

The Japan international is expected to join Liverpool in January.

“I'd love to play there [in Britain]," he said in 2018 after a Europa League tie with Celtic.

“It's one of the leagues that I've watched ever since I was a child and it's the league where all the top players play.

The way Celtic played, the supporters, the stadium and the atmosphere was pretty similar to the Premier League. It was such a good experience for me."[/article]
 
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Really interesting reading an interview with a journalist that follows Salzburg and Austrian football. He speaks extremely highely of Minamino, and not just his quality.

Minamino has been playing on the right in a 4-2-2-2 formation this year, but played mostly as the attacking midfielder in a diamond under the previous manager.

Very popular in the dressing room and speaks four languages, among them German and English.
Mentally strong, humble and a team player that doesnt moan when starting on the bench.

Looks like a very good fit in terms of both personality and quality.
 
Hansern said:
Really interesting reading an interview with a journalist that follows Salzburg and Austrian football. He speaks extremely highely of Minamino, and not just his quality.

Minamino has been playing on the right in a 4-2-2-2 formation this year, but played mostly as the attacking midfielder in a diamond under the previous manager.

Very popular in the dressing room and speaks four languages, among them German and English.
Mentally strong, humble and a team player that doesnt moan when starting on the bench.

Looks like a very good fit in terms of both personality and quality.
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What's the other language apart from Japanese and the 2 above? He seemed very shy speaking in German and I've not seen any interviews of him speaking in English so far.
 
Minamino has primarily started as a central attacking midfielder or winger for Red Bull this season but can also play as a wide midfielder. The graphic below shows his influence and impressive returns in the Champions League this term.
skysports-takumi-minamino-graphic_4865053.png

The heatmap below further emphasises his considerable coverage from box to box, while he also primarily looks to pass forward or to an overlapping runner down the left flank.
skysports-takumi-minamino-graphic_4865057.png

But his knack of scoring or teeing up team-mates is his key attribute and the shot map below reveals his economy, with most of his shots coming from inside the box after carving clear-cut opportunities.
skysports-takumi-minamino-graphic_4865054.png

His precision passing has created numerous opportunities for his team-mates - and the graphic below shows how he has carved out openings in the Champions League.
skysports-graphic-minamino_4865101.png

Minamino appears to fit the Klopp mould, being just 24 years old, having a high work rate, versatility, a clinical edge and eye to thread killer balls for team-mates to finish. At just over £7m, he could prove to be quite a bargain.
 
Should mention of course that 24 yrs old is stretching it a bit. He'll be 25 two weeks after joining us. Maybe 2-3 yrs away from his prime which should give Klopp plenty of time to take him to the next level.
 
reuque said:
What's the other language apart from Japanese and the 2 above? He seemed very shy speaking in German and I've not seen any interviews of him speaking in English so far.
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It didnt say mate, might have been said in the podcast he was on though.
 
dmishra said:
Agreed, I think Minamino will play primarily as a more withdrawn Firmino - essentially the 1 in the 4-3-1-2 that Klopp has been toying with of late (with Mane and Salah up front).

He might play left-wing occasionally, but I do think a central role is what he'll have primarily.

A separate point is one of attacking versatility.

If there's one weakness we have is that we can't always outplay a team technically the way City can (thanks to the abundance of the very technicallly skilled CMs and AMs they have).

Primarily, our attacking philosophy is this:

1. Outwork the opposition in midfield

2. Use width of pitch through full-backs to supply a barrage of high quality crosses

3. Exploit open spaces and counter with pace

4. Rely on the synergy and combination play of our first-choice front three

There's a fifth aspect this year, which is the vertical passing of Fabinho and Henderson, though I'm not sure it's usual enough to be called a distinctive feature yet.

Now there is a drop off in our attacking play when you take out any one of these aspects. For instance, when Trent is absent, our wide play suffers badly because Gomez is simply not very competent going forward.

Similarly, take out any one of the front three, and there's a drop in quality because Origi is simply not at their level in terms of combination play. Also if any of the front three are off-form (which has been the case this year with Firmino and Salah), it's easy to stifle us.

The solution obviously is to find players who can help us play more technically through the middle, and try and 'outplay' the opposition.

Which is where I think you'll see Keita, Minamino and Shaqiri come in. They're all highly adept technically, can play through the middle, create things in tight spaces and help break down tactically astute and stubborn teams, which we'll undoubtedly face in the second half of the season.

Really looking forward to it.
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agree with this - i think he’s seen as a potential long term replacement for Bobby
 
And to be fair, Bobby needs a like for like threat to his place. For how brilliant he is, as arguably the attack functions around him, there are times (as with any player) where he goes off the boil.

I really liked this lad from the off. He has the bit of Firmino/Coutinho about him, in that he'll play the ball most players wouldn't try, he's incredibly intelligent and creative. I think it's an absolute steal. Obviously whether he adapts well is a big question, but he didn't look too lightweight to me, he seemed quite agile and fairly strong at the same time.

Bobby took a while to adjust and it also took us time to find the right role for him, so again with this lad he might not hit the ground running, but the beauty of it is that if he's here to put pressure on the front three, he has time on his side and the best players in those positions to learn from.
 
Two months? Work shy bastards. Will he not be rusty as fuck after that?
 
He was out of the final match for Salzburg before the winter break this weekend, so his last match was in the CL against us.

We could've simply announced it during the full-time whistle after our win there at this point and save cost on transport by taking him back to Liverpool on the team bus.
 
Athens said:
Oh, ok then.

Still, a two month break? I didn't think the Austrian winters were that rough...
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We owned a couple of restaurants there when I was still young(ish) and we'd walk home (about 1km from one of them) every night after shutting up shop. Could be as low as -25C on occasion but definitely always well below zero and often the snow ploughs were out - and this was in the South not far from the Slovenian border. This would go on for 2-3 months each year.
 
I also guess it makes sense to not compete commercial with the wintersports. With some of the best winter athletes it is hard for average footballers (good but not worldclass) to draw attention.
 
I really hate it whenever an Asian player, especially from Far East is signed by a club, commercial aspect tends to be thrown in there. It’s not like we’ve never visited that part of the world on our preseason tour. Not like during our preseason tour we had to pay fans to come and see us play, or play against a stadium where nobody knows us. We sold out stadiums with 100K seats and camera swept over the stands and you see a sea of red throughout. Made it sound like we’re Man City or some team nobody seemed to know of.
 
lfc.eddie said:
I really hate it whenever an Asian player, especially from Far East is signed by a club, commercial aspect tends to be thrown in there. It’s not like we’ve never visited that part of the world on our preseason tour. Not like during our preseason tour we had to pay fans to come and see us play, or play against a stadium where nobody knows us. We sold out stadiums with 100K seats and camera swept over the stands and you see a sea of red throughout. Made it sound like we’re Man City or some team nobody seemed to know of.
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Haha, I thought you were going to say that you took umbrage at the tokenization of Asian talent, as though the reason we'd hire them is at least significantly driven by commercial interest... But no, you went with we're so fucking big every Japanese person already worships us.
 
The commercial side of things is just the cherry on the cake with this signing.

It's not the major factor in signing Minamino.

If you want to talk about a club signing a player purely based on commercial interests then look at United when they signed Dong Fangzhou.
 
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