Besides being able to link up play and accurately pass in small spaces, Takumi Minamino is equally proficient at dribbling. The forward has averaged 3.73 dribbles per game this season with a 71% success rate. Clearly, Minamino excels at running towards defences and this coincides with Marco Rose’s ethos of playing through the middle. Playing him in the number 10 position allows the Japanese striker the freedom and space to carry the ball and utilise his strongest asset.Once again against Rheindorf Altach, notice Takumi Minamino’s starting position, he has two options, one to go across the player or cut inside and attempt to take on the last two defenders.The striker chooses to go across the defender and skips past him. At this moment, he needs to worry about the covering defender and if he successfully evades him then he has a clear opportunity on goal or at the very least creates an assist opportunity. The ease at which he around round the players and is able to go around the defence to shoot is through his own hard work.His high dribbling success rate isn’t him finding yards of space on a counter-attack rather he is an efficient and effective dribbler in busy situations. Coupled with his dribbling is his high passing rate at 76.5%. He tends to start in the middle and passes out wide to the full-backs to cross in for the two strikers or plays it in the channels. Overloading the channels takes pressure off the full-backs with the opposition full-backs and centre-backs focused on Minamino and the two strikers allowing Andreas Ulmer and Stefan Lainer an easier time out wide.In this match against Anderlecht, we can see Takumi Minamino in the number 10 position behind Moanes Dabbur and South Korean striker Hee Chan Hwang. Having already scored in the first minute, Minamino was terrorising the Belgian club’s defence. After dribbling past the first player, Minamino finds himself in space and senses an opportunity to thread a ball to Hee Chan Hwang. Notice all the defenders are fixated on stopping Minamino leaving the South Korean forward an easy opportunity to cross to Moanes Dabbur.