Klopp’s Minamino admission comes back to haunt him as Liverpool duo slammed

Jurgen Klopp admitted Liverpool sent Takumi Minamino on loan because he wasn't getting enough chances at Anfield.

But the Reds boss will be wishing he'd perhaps played the Japan international a little more often after he netted on his debut for Southampton.

Minamino was on target for the Saints just days after an unusually goal-shy Liverpool were beaten 1-0 by relegation-threatened Brighton.

Liverpool have been without Sadio Mane in recent weeks, with Xherdan Shaqiri and Divock Origi being handed minutes by Klopp.

But the duo haven't been at the races, with club legend Graeme Souness claiming the forwards aren't good enough to play for Liverpool.

Minamino has been a peripheral figure at Anfield ever since he joined from Salzburg.

Klopp explained he wanted the forward to get more opportunities this season, which is why he agreed to send him out on loan to Southampton – a decision he may be regretting now.

Klopp explained: "Having options is the only reason you can give a player to another club.

"We were active in this situation, though, they asked and we did not say there was 'no chance'. So, we thought about it and Takumi is an incredible player but we didn't give him enough chances. That's the truth.

"And that was for different reasons, sometimes it was just because of his size and that was because of our problems in defence – we were not tall enough and then with Takumi on the pitch we had to think how could we do that.

"Defending set pieces is a very important part, for the player it's not too interesting and for the journalists it's probably not too interesting but in some moments these kind of things make the difference when one player is playing but the other is not.

"When Southampton came up, there were not a lot of clubs where I thought it made sense to let him go, but Southampton made a lot of sense.

"He is there for 17 games now I think and with the situation Southampton are in, if Takumi stays fit then he has a good chance to play 17 games. That then helps everybody, it helps Southampton and it helps us.

"The only thing Takumi was lacking was a couple of games in a row. That was difficult here, I'd have loved to keep him just to have the options but in the end, because Takumi is a long term project and always was.

"We see a lot of potential in him, it makes a lot of sense that he gets a chance to play maybe 17 Premier League games and comes back in a completely different mindset, confidence level and all these kind of things. I hope it's a win-win situation."

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