Liverpool 2-1 Wolves: Five things we learned – Virgil van Dijk doesn’t sweat

There’s a new kid in town

Sadio Mane did the twirling hand signal t other bench, sat down, stood up, sat down, got jeered by the home support, stood up and trudged straight down the tunnel as he was replaced by Takumi Minamino following an injury.

This is interesting because it shows that Minamino seems to be above Divock Origi in the pecking order. Before the Japanese international arrived from Salzburg, it would have been the Belgian who replaced Mane.

Minamino become the ninth Japanese player to feature in the Premier League as he made his debut didn’t bring that much, even if there were a few nice touches. It may have raised a couple of eyebrows, however, because normally Origi is the nominated man to replace Mane at any point in the game.

It’s the Belgian who’ll play on the left when the team is re-jigged for FA Cup or Carabao Cup games and it’s the Belgian who will jog onto the pitch when Klopp decides that Mane’s run his race.

But now it’s Minamino. We know that Klopp doesn’t hand out debuts to the undeserving and we know he takes his time introducing players to the first team. Had this been the Shrewsbury clash you could have almost swatted it aside, but this feels important.