Kaoru Mitoma threatened Liverpool as viewed by Micah Richards. Micah Richards, a former defender for Manchester City, praised Kaoru Mitoma, a winger for Brighton & Hove Albion, for his outstanding performance against Liverpool last weekend.
I wouldn’t like to play against him because he’s too clever, the Englishman told BBC. I would usually show a winger down the line while playing against him, but he does it because he’s so intelligent and agile. As the midfielder quickly plays the ball in behind you as he charges at you and plays inside, he is rushing behind you as you are watching the ball go. It makes contacting him very challenging.
“He never stops moving,” he continued. He constantly places himself in undesirable situations. When you are playing against a right-footed winger who is playing on the left and he cuts inside, you might believe your job is done, so you throw the ball to the holding midfielder or the center-half, but when he gets into areas where no one is focusing on him, he can dribble by you.
In Brighton’s 3-0 league triumph over Liverpool on January 14, which also featured a brace from Solly March, Mitoma put up a strong showing. Danny Welbeck also registered a goal. The Japanese forward has been outstanding so far this season, scoring three goals and providing one assist in 13 league games.
Since the end of the previous season, when they were on the verge of winning an unprecedented quadruple, Liverpool has seen a sharp fall. With only eight victories from 18 games this season, the Reds are currently ninth in the Premier League standings.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp firmly feels his career at Anfield is not in peril, despite the team’s dismal performance this season. After finishing in seventh place in the Bundesliga, the German manager’s tenure with his previous club Borussia Dortmund came to an end.
The Reds, who are currently ninth in the standings, seem to be in a similar situation. However, Klopp believes the circumstances are different, as he stated: “When I left Dortmund I said: ‘Something has to change here.’ It was a different situation there but in a way it’s similar. Either I go … or a lot of other things change. As far as I know, from what I hear, I will not go. So that means maybe there’s a point where we have to change other stuff and we will see that. But it’s something for the future, like in the summer, not now.”
Klopp will remain Liverpool’s boss until 2026 after the German signed a two-year contract extension last summer on his previous deal that ran until 2024.
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