Taki Minamino said that he broke his Premier League scoring duck with the Reds by relying on instinct.
The Japanese international’s goal opened the scoring for Jurgen Klopp’s side at Selhurst Park, with the German’s men running amok in London to amass a 7-0 lead.
“When Sadio passed the ball to me, I sensed that an opponent was coming to block me. But from there, I had no time to think, but just trusted my feeling and shot,” Taki told Liverpoolfc.com. “I wouldn’t say that I was disappointed with myself [for not scoring in the Premier League previously], but I always wanted to score as soon as possible. I also felt some pressure about it.”
The former RB Salzburg man – praised in Klopp’s pre-match programme notes – was a constant threat to the Londoners and, in truth, was unfortunate to register only a single goal.
Having opened his scoring account last week, one might imagine that the No.18 will be somewhat difficult to leave out of the starting XI for the Reds’ hosting of West Brom on Sunday.
It’s another headache for Klopp, made all the more challenging by the return to training of Thiago Alcantara, Xherdan Shaqiri and James Milner.
We’d expect the latter three to be bench players at the most, but it’s the right kind of difficulty we’ve been aching to have this season, with an injury crisis forcing the Reds to make do with the bare bones holding the structure together.
We at the EOTK are excited to see where Taki’s recent form takes him and hope that the tie in London marks the start of an exciting Anfield career for the 25-year-old.