January has not gone well for Takumi Minamino.
With Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane away at the Africa Cup of Nations, it was meant to be the month where the Japan international finally staked his claim for a place in the Liverpool starting XI.
Yet come transfer deadline day and the forward’s Anfield future was arguably the most uncertain it’s ever been.
Coming into January carrying an injury, he returned as a half-time substitute against Shrewsbury Town before starting in Liverpool's disappointing 0-0 draw with Arsenal in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals.
Despite arguably being the liveliest of the Reds’ forwards on the night as they registered just one shot on target against 10 men, his performance would be best-remembered for an horrendous late miss despite being presented with an open goal in front of the Kop. It would be his only start of the month.
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Benched against Brentford, he would score within minutes of coming on for the injured Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who had taken his place in the starting XI, yet remained on the bench for the second leg against the Gunners as teenager Kaide Gordon was surprisingly brought into the starting XI ahead of him for only his third senior start.
Liverpool's leading goalscorer in the League Cup with four goals, having started every match prior to the trip to the Emirates, it was hard to see such a decision as anything other than a damaging blow to Minamino 's hopes of a long-term Anfield career.
Finishing the month against Crystal Palace, he was limited to substitute duty once again as Oxlade-Chamberlain returned and scored.
Even after Salah and Mane’s absence, he is yet to start in the Premier League this season.
Now he has just one game left, against Cardiff City in the FA Cup on Sunday, before Salah and Mane return from Africa Cup of Nations duty. One game left to prove his worth before he drops back down the pecking order and sees his minutes limited further.
Yet the £49m signing of Luis Diaz and the return of Harvey Elliott from a dislocated ankle could mean such an opportunity doesn’t even fall his way.
Jurgen Klopp has always been full of praise for the forward, insisting how impressive he is behind the scenes and that game-time will come.
“You can’t imagine how happy I am with Taki,” he declared after the Japan international came off the bench to score against Arsenal back in November. “He’s in an incredible moment and today he was actually our solution for four positions, I think.
“Five positions actually because he could have played both eight positions and all three upfront. He’s in a really good moment and you see that.
“I’m pretty sure he played really well for Japan in the international games. Now he’s here and very important for us.
“We’re so happy, everybody was so happy for him that he scored the goal. The way he played today reflects how well he is training at the moment.
“He will have games, no doubt about that.”
Meanwhile, after victory against the Shrews, Klopp said: “Taki trained only twice after his injury, the game was part of his rehab.
“Taki was injured, nothing serious but serious enough that he couldn’t play. It won’t be the longest rehab in his life.
“But he is back and is very, very important for us, especially now we have a lot of games coming up and we all know two of our main guys up front are not here.
“I liked Taki a lot when he came on, he was actually in really good shape.
“But of course the injury interrupted him slightly, that’s how it is. Now he is back, it’s good and we need him desperately.”
A penny for Minamino’s thoughts if his limited minutes in January is Liverpool needing him ‘desperately’, with the evidence proving very much otherwise.
A £7.25m signing from Red Bull Salzburg two years ago, circumstances have ensured his Reds career has never had a real chance to take off, with the coronavirus pandemic forcing football’s suspension just a couple of months after his arrival prompting the most disruptive of starts.
Loaned to Southampton right at the end of January transfer deadline day last year in a bid to kickstart his Premier League fortunes, his experience at St. Mary’s proved varied at best as he scored twice from nine starts before returning to Anfield in the summer.
Linked with another January transfer deadline day move this time around, you’d be forgiven for thinking Liverpool had perhaps decided to cut their losses.
Signed for a bargain fee due to a release clause in his contract, he should still be sold, when the time comes, for a profit despite his Reds frustrations.
But with approaches from both Leeds United and Monaco both rejected, Minamino stayed put with the forward said to be desperate to remain at Anfield until the end of the season at least.
This is still a player Liverpool’s squad were desperate for Klopp to sign after he scored and starred at Anfield for Salzburg in the Champions League against the Reds back in October 2019.
The sad truth for Minamino is that, despite showing glimpses of his talent since joining Liverpool, that performance arguably remains his best on Merseyside.
With the Reds still competing on four fronts, Klopp will have to rotate in the months ahead and the Japan international remains capable of being a solution for the German in a number of positions.
However, the problem for the 27-year-old is he is not even the first reserve in any of his favoured roles.
If that didn’t change in the absence of Salah and Mane, you wonder what opportunities could possibly fall his way following the duo’s return along with Elliott’s comeback and the arrival of Diaz.
Minamino will know this, of course, and having vocalised his frustration back in December, you’d imagine such feelings only heightened in recent weeks.
"As a player I always want to play every match," he said before the transfer window opened. "I think a kind of frustration is common for the players (who don't play) but I like to turn this frustration into positiveness with my attitude.
"I put in a lot of effort every day to play more and to get game time. I want to play more games and I want to prove to myself that I can do much better, so I use my frustration to turn everything positive…
"As a footballer the ages between 26 and 30 are your best time, the time when you can play at your peak as a player.
"For myself at these ages I would like to play as many games as possible, but I am at the best club in the world and I can spend the best time of my career at this club.
"As I have said before, I would like to contribute to this club as much as possible. That is the best thing I can do."
Such a declaration and his desperation to remain at Liverpool highlights a player not willing to walk away from his Reds dream just yet.
His path to Klopp’s starting XI might be more obscured than ever and there may come a time in the not too distant future where he is forced to concede defeat. But that day hasn’t come just yet.
As team-mate Divock Origi has repeatedly proven from the fringes, there’s always an opportunity to be the Liverpool hero.
With plenty of silverware up for grabs, such a stage which fall Minamino’s way one way or another before the end of the season.
Supposedly enjoying his peak years, it is up to him to make the most of it if he is to have any chance of not being made available for transfer in the summer.
Origi could depart alongside him at the end of the season, but he'd leave as a beloved cult hero, scorer of many historic goals with his name littered across many a page in the Reds annals as opposed to a low-risk gamble that simply just didn't pay off.
At the very least, the Japan international needs to ensure his Anfield visit with Salzburg is not the performance he is remembered best for when his Reds career does come to an end, whenever that might be.
Entering his last-chance saloon, it’s now or never for Minamino at a time when he has been written off most.
