Jurgen ‘The Normal One’ Klopp took an opportunity to flaunt his customised mug during a press conference on Tuesday where he was explaining the reasons behind loaning out attacking-midfield player Minamino to Southampton.
Minamino made the move to the Saints on a six-month loan deal where the Japan international passed a medical on Monday evening ahead of his Deadline Day move.
The 26-year-old attacking midfielder is expected to join up with new team-mates ahead of their game with Manchester United in the Premier League on Tuesday night.
During one of his pre-match press conferences, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp explained why they felt the loan move would benefit Minamino in the long term.
Klopp has explained why they felt a loan move to Southampton would be beneficial for Minamino in the long term.
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) February 2, 2021
Video courtesy of Liverpool FC via Twitter
Speaking to LFCTV Klopp said: “Yeah, of course, having options makes it the only chance that you can give a player to another club,” Klopp told reporters.
“But we were active in this situation a little; Southampton asked and it was not that we said, ‘No, no, no, no chance.’ We thought about it.
“Takumi is an incredibly good player and we didn’t give him enough chances, that’s the truth. That’s for different reasons.
Sometimes it was just the size; because of our problems in defence we were not tall enough and then Takumi on the pitch you think, ‘OK, how can we do that then?’
Defending set-pieces is a very important part. It’s for the player not too interesting and for journalists probably not too interesting, but in some moments even these kind of things make the difference why one player is playing and the other not.
“Southampton came up and there were not a lot of clubs where I thought it really makes sense to let him go, but Southampton makes a lot of sense.
He is there for 17 games now and in the situation Southampton is, if Takumi stays fit he has a good chance to play 17 games, which helps everybody.
It helps Southampton and helps us, because the only thing Takumi was lacking was a couple of games in a row. And it was a difficult year.
“I would have loved to keep him, just to have the option and stuff like this, but in the end because Takumi is a long-term project and always was – we see really a lot of potential in Takumi – it makes absolute sense that he gets now the chance to play maybe 17 games, Premier League games, and then comes back in a completely different mindset, confidence level, all these kind of things.
“I hope it’s a win-win situation.”
Minamino joined the Reds from Salzburg in the 2020 January transfer window after Liverpool activated his £7.25 million release clause, making him the first Japanese player to play for the club