Today sees Liverpool take on League One side Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup fourth round. The Reds will journey to the Shrews’ ground with the home support in hopeful belief of an upset. Takumi Minamino has to start against Shrewsbury Town.
The Reds signed Minamino in the January transfer window from RB Salzburg.
Michael Edwards pulled off yet another bargain signing as he paid just £7.25m for the talented Japanese forward.
So far we have seen the new arrival take on Everton in the FA Cup and play most of the game against Wolves in the Premier League.
It is imperative that we get Minamino up to speed with The Reds’ style of play ASAP with Jürgen Klopp’s side heading into the business end of the season.
This week we saw Sadio Mane limp off against Wolves, as of yet there’s been no prognosis offered for the injury.
With the boss down a forward for an undetermined amount of time, we need somebody to fill his shoes.
Playing Takumi Minamino against Shrewsbury Town would help adapt to life under Klopp, making him more able to stand in for the injured Sadio.
We know that it takes some time for players to fully nail down how the boss wants them to play.
Fabinho is now one of our most pivotal players but he couldn’t get a game for the first three or four months of his Liverpool career.
Unfortunately we don’t have three or four months for Minamino to learn the ins and outs.
If Sadio is out for a prolonged spell we need the new signing to slot in sooner rather than later – he can’t do that without match practice.
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