In the 32nd minute of this afternoon’s Premier League encounter between Southampton and Chelsea, Nathan Redmond threaded the ball through after a layoff from Blues graduate Oriol Romeu.
Redmond’s beautiful through ball was drilled through to Takumi Minamino, with the Liverpool loanee perfectly positioned between Kurt Zouma and Cesar Azpilicueta.
The Japanese star expertly controlled the ball before driving forward, then came some lovely trickery, Minamino sent Azpilicueta sliding and Edouard Mendy diving with a pair of dummies – a.k.a fake shots.
Minamino then slid the ball across and poked it into a gaping net.
Takumi Minamino with an ice cool finish! ??
Despite all the Chelsea possession, Southampton take the lead at St Mary’s! ? pic.twitter.com/0ms95CCTpj
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) February 20, 2021
Pictures from BT Sport and RMC Sport.
This may well be Minamino’s most important contribution for the Reds this season – and possibly since he joined last January, who would’ve thought that it would come via the South Coast outfit?
This is because he is playing in the role Klopp was impressed with, but he was playing in a different position for us, same with Inges, never seemed to grasp the way he was wanted to play.