Jurgen Klopp has given a fairly confusing explanation of Takumi Minamino’s imminent Anfield arrival and what the Japanese will immediately offer us!
According to the boss, we don’t need Minamino to hit the ground running, due to the fact we’re winning games without him – so has provided the 24-year-old the chance to settle in his own time.
In truth, multiple Klopp signings have been slowly bedded into the side, most notably Fabinho, who for a few months often struggled to make the bench. Now, the Brazilian is regarded as the best holding midfielder on the planet.
The boss does mention that Rb Salzburg’s tactics are not dissimilar to ours, which will ease his transition – but until he’s tactically up to scratch – don’t expect him to start week in, week out.
“Look at our situation, I understand the question but how can you ask me in the moment when we have 14 adult players? I would be happy if he was half as good as he is, if he could be here now in this moment and could help us – and he could help us,” he told the official website.
“That’s all good, we will see how quick it goes. The ways in which we play are not too different, there are a lot of things which he has learned already at Salzburg. That makes it so good for us, actually. We have a lot of patterns on the game which are different to what Salzburg are doing. So, offensively, when you speak about what he is used to, it is more or less defensively. He is an offensive player, so offensively how can we bring him into a situation that he feels completely comfortable and to use the things instinctively and not because we told him? That’s what we speak every year about when we say [about new signings], ‘Why he is not already in?’ all the time and stuff like this. There is no pressure, there is absolutely no pressure, when he is coming in January. This team is not struggling without him, so what we want is extra quality with him, different quality with him and a really, really good player. That’s what we got and from which point on we can use him, really we will see. From which point on we will see the 100 per cent Takumi, there is absolutely no pressure on the boy. So many good things which will help us, but from which moment on he can use all of them, we will see.”
Minamino will arrive on January 1, with the club already securing his signature before we went to the Club World Cup.
With Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain out until February, Minamino will definitely get some minutes in January – but like Klopp says – there’s no pressure on him to perform straight away.