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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Joe Rimmer

Four things noticed inside Melwood during Takumi Minamino's first Liverpool training session

Takumi Minamino enjoyed his first Liverpool training session at Melwood on New Year's Eve.

The Japanese international joined in training for the first time after moving to the Reds in a £7.25m deal from Salzburg.

Liverpool filmed chunks of the session and made it available to watch on their website - with some very interesting results.

Here are four things we noticed from Minamino's first training session as a Liverpool player:

Happy birthday Peter Kraweitz

Before training even got underway, Jurgen Klopp had his players huddle and sing happy birthday to his long-time friend and assistant Peter Kraweitz.

Kraweitz turned 48 on New Year's Eve and the players sang to him first in German and then in English.

But Klopp wasn't finished there. New boy Takumi Minamino gave Kraweitz a version of happy birthday in Japanese before Mohamed Salah rounded things off with Arabic twist.

Then it was down to business.

Nat Phillips returns

Takumi Minamino was the new boy on Tuesday afternoon, but he wasn't the only 'new' face in training.

Nat Phillips was back with his team-mates having returned from a loan spell in Germany with Stuttgart to help ease Liverpool's defensive issues.

Phillips could be on Liverpool's bench for the coming clash with Everton in the FA Cup, but Jurgen Klopp recently admitted the player could actually return to Stuttgart before the window ends.

Setting the standard

Rondos form a big part of Liverpool's training under Jurgen Klopp. They see a number of players tasked with trying to keep the ball moving for as long as possible while two attackers look to press and intercept the ball.

Takumi Minamino got involved as Liverpool played out a number of drills while James Milner, Jordan Henderson and Virgil van Dijk counted each pass.

There's a clear competitiveness between the players - and Milner really doesn't like losing. He loses out to Minamino early on, before telling Andy Robertson off for trying a pass with the outside of his boot.

Sadio Mane is a bundle of energy, and at one point even slides in to win the ball back from the vice-captain.

Full-backs keeping it competitive

The competition between Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold for assists is well known.

And the duo clearly enjoy an excellent relationship in training as they continued working on other drills at Melwood.

Robertson and Alexander-Arnold are seen keeping the ball up together - and they keep things very competitive. So much so, in fact, that Jurgen Klopp has to remind them it's just a recovery session!

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