Speaking before Sunday’s 2-2 draw with FC Lorient, the Japan international credited new Monaco coach Adi Hutter for the success of his recent resurgence.
Takumi Minamino, who had been acquired from Liverpool in the summer of 2022 for £13 million, had spent a large portion of his challenging first season in the Principality playing out wide. And it is no accident that Minamino’s form and numbers have improved dramatically since Hutter cast him in a more appropriate, pivotal role.
Ex Liverpool ace Takumi Minamino in ‘sparkling’ form
The previous season was challenging for me, the former Red Bull Salzburg star admits to the Ligue 1 website.
I’m in the position I prefer right now. who elicits the greatest performance from me. It’s a pretty unique thing. Since we’ve been playing good football, we’ve been at the top of the standings.
Minamino has started the current season with six goal contributions in only five games, thriving alongside Russian maestro Aleksandr Golovin and gaining from the mobility of cunning poacher Wissam Ben Yedder.
The Ligue 1 Player of the Month award for August went to a player who had three goals and three assists despite only making one top-flight start during his miserable final season at Liverpool.
Ligue 1’s Player of the Month
“The Monaco forward has been absolutely brilliant!” The Union of Professional Footballers of France tweets that Manuel Ugarte, a high-profile newcomer to PSG, and Montpellier forward Musa Al-Taamari were both outgunned by Minamino for the monthly award.
After Daisuke Matsui in the 2005–06 season, he became the second Japanese winner of the UNFP Player of the Month trophy.
Simple problems can have simple solutions.
And if Hutter’s Monaco predecessor Niko Kovac could go back in time, it’s difficult to imagine that, knowing what he knows now, he would have been quite as eager to shove Minamino into an awkward, counterproductive wide role.
