Japan qualified for the World Cup in Qatar with a 2-0 win over Australia on Thursday. That could be bad news for Liverpool’s hopes of hanging onto Takumi Minamino.
The Liverpool forward was withdrawn with five minutes still to play and the score at 0-0.
The man who replaced him – Kaoru Mitoma – scored twice in the last few minutes to send Japan to Qatar.
It’s a shame for Minamino that, as one of the country’s leading players, he was taken off with Japan chasing the win.
He will obviously want to be a key player heading into November’s World Cup. It may now be that he has to push to leave Liverpool in order to find more regular game time ahead of the tournament.
Waiting his turn
Minamino might well benefit from Divock Origi’s inevitable exit from the Liverpool this summer. With one less player to compete for minutes with, he may find himself on the pitch more often.
However, it isn’t exactly like Origi has been seeing much action himself this season. Taki has actually played more Premier League minutes than the Belgian this year.
It could be that Minamino may have to wait for the exit of one of Liverpool’s more established players. He would then have to hope that Jurgen Klopp didn’t bring in anyone to replace them.
The futures of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah all hang in the balance. But it seems unlikely that Liverpool wouldn’t replace any of them should they leave.
Therefore it could be that Minamino has no real option but to leave the club to make sure he is as match-fit as he can be for the big tournament in Qatar.
A reluctant goodbye
Liverpool rejected advances towards the 27-year-old from Monaco and Leeds United in January (BBC Sport). They obviously value having the player around and he has been a useful contributor this season, scoring nine goals.
Without his form when brought into the team, it’s impossible that Liverpool would still be in contention for a quadruple this season.
But there surely comes a point in a player’s career where cup games just aren’t enough. That point is usually reached when there’s a big international competition on the horizon.
Now that Japan have booked their place for next winter, perhaps Minamino will be re-evaluating whether his immediate future will be at Liverpool after all.
The club would be loathe to lose him given his usefulness. But it’s also likely that he would more than double the £7.25m they paid for him in 2020.
There’s a big decision ahead for Taki this summer.
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