Takumi Minamino was given a rare chance to impress for Liverpool this afternoon, but the Japan international didn’t grasp the opportunity with both hands.
Reds boss Jurgen Klopp named him in his starting XI for the first time in a Premier League game this season.
But the former Red Bull Salzburg attacker struggled in a major way against Brighton, who snatched a last-minute 1-1 draw after equalising from the penalty spot.
Minamino managed only 56 touches during his 90 minutes on the field [WhoScored] in a statistic which illustrates that the game pretty much passed him by.
Here’s how some Liverpool fans reacted to his performance on Twitter:
As a result of this performance, we might not see Minamino in a first XI again for some time.
These are the types of chances that he needs to pounce on and, well, he just didn’t do much to vindicate Klopp’s decision to start him.
The good news is that the Reds have eight games across all competitions during the month of December and although he’s unlikely to start, he might well get chances off the bench.
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