The Liverpool had several last resort moves in the winter pass market. After suffering countless losses in defense, he was able to sign two central defenders to give relief to Jürgen Klopp. However, a player who arrived a year ago as a great promise, was loaned to another team in the Premier League after not having met expectations.
Left at the last minute
Not too much space for its intermittent performance, Takumi Minamino he packed his bags and was on loan to Southampton until the end of the season. The Japanese winger joined the ‘Reds’ in January 2020, after a great group stage in the 2019/20 Champions League with RB Salzburg. Precisely, in that round, he faced the Merseyside team and seduced Klopp.
His signing was announced shortly thereafter and generated enormous expectations in Liverpool. However, he was unable to respond as expected and had a hard time keeping up. He had the very hard task of being relief for Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, a situation that ended up surpassing him. Total, Takumi Minamino He played 31 games under the German coach, in which he scored four goals.
“I am very pleased to welcome Takumi, he will give us more depth at a very important moment of the season,” said Southampton coach Ralph Hasenhüttl. The ‘Saints’ were one of the Premier League’s revelations during the first half of the tournament. However, they went into a rough patch that took them away from the vanguard positions (today they are 11th).
Equipment status
On the other hand, Liverpool closed the last minute signings of Ben Davies (Preston North End) and Ozan Kabak (Schalke 04). Two central defenders who arrived to refresh a defense weakened by injuries. With Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip out for the rest of the season, Jürgen Klopp had to turn to the young Rhys Williams and Nathaniel Phillips, as well as switch positions to Fabinho and Henderson.