Jurgen Klopp has revealed that Takumi Minamino played through a calf injury during what he described as an ‘exceptional’ Premier League debut for Liverpool at Wolves.
The Japan international, a January signing from RB Salzburg, made an unexpected league bow in the 33rd minute at Molineux after Sadio Mane was forced off by injury.
His performance could have been fairly categorised as solid if unspectacular, but was made all the more impressive by Klopp’s post-match explanation.
On Minamino’s debut, the German said: “Super. We had the situation that Sadio goes off, we played tonight slightly different to usually.
“We had to defend in a 4-4-2 then played offensive in our normal system. If now Div is coming on, who would deserve it, 100 per cent, because he is in incredible shape, it’s really very offensive very early in the game.
“Taki had now two or three weeks training with us, played different positions in training at least, played centrally in the FA Cup game, now played right and left wing.
“He can play that, we need him, but he is not a winger in this understanding, he’s a player for between the lines so Oxlade had then to be a bit higher so that we had still offers in behind, so we can still stretch the formation.
In Pictures | Wolves vs Liverpool | 23/01/2020
“So it was really difficult for Taki, he felt immediately the calf, at half-time he needed treatment – we hope it’s nothing and he could go through so it should be fine.
“That was, for the first Premier League game, exceptionally well and he is completely integrated in the team and that’s really good.”
