Why new Liverpool man Takumi Minamino will be hated by punters… after just 71 minutes

Paddy Power takes you behind the lines with the inside stories from last weekend's world of betting.

Takumi-Minamino-now-with-Liverpool

It’s not all fun, games and fawning over Ruby Walsh each week in Power Tower.

Granted, there’s a fair bit of that – especially the latter. Bless his very, very small socks.

But at times, believe it or not, we actually do some work – and I thought I’d share some of it with you hardy Paddy Power News readers.

Each week in Power Tower there’s a rundown as to what happened in the markets over the weekend. To be clear, I personally don’t put it together. If I did, it’d be riddled with typos. And mistakes. And it would be a general shit-show.

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Anyhow, I love having a look at the big winners of the week – a 2,048/1 FA Cup eightfold and a 1,637/1 horse racing five-fold. Honestly, I do. Fair play to anyone who can pull off bets like that.

But I’m duty-bound this week to deliver news on our football villain. Or should I say ‘your’ football villain. That man is Takumi Minamino, a Japanese international signed by Liverpool a week or two ago.

Presumably looking for a Virgil van Dijk act of deja vu, nearly 2,000 of our punters backed Minamino to score first against Everton on Sunday.

To put into context, that made him the most popular first goalscorer selection of the footballing weekend. No player received more bets on them.

Jurgen Klopp

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And, as it happened, no football match was more popular with our customers than Liverpool vs Everton last weekend.

So when Minamino ran out and took his position as a central striker, with Divock Origi on the wing, those many punters (who staked an average of 4 quid each) could have been forgiven for thinking their luck was in.

Except no. Despite Jurgen Klopp singing his praises – ‘Minamino was super, outstanding, exactly the player we wanted’ he insisted – the great hope of our punters didn’t even have a shot.

The ‘dream’ debut lasted 71 minutes before he was hauled off to rousing applause at Anfield – and less so by the Paddy Power faithful. With it, a collective groan at a new signing letting them down.

Callum-Robinson-Rep-Ireland

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Same can’t be said for Callum Robinson, mind you. The Republic of Ireland striker attracted plenty of attention to score first for Sheffield United against Fylde and it took him just eight minutes to make it pay.

Super Cal sends punters ballistic but Takumi is atrocious? Okay, I know it’s shit, I’ll stick to being a bookmaker.

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