Mao Itamura is the latest piece for Gareth Taylor's Liverpool machine
Japanese attacking midfielder Mao Itamura has signed for Liverpool Women from Feyenoord. She is a promising young talent who was named Women’s Eredivisie Player of the Season for 2025–26. An impressive dribbler, she scored six goals and provided eight assists for the Dutch club, playing a significant role in their qualification for the UEFA Women’s Europa Cup, while also winning the Women’s Asian Cup this year with Japan’s Under-20s.
Her acquisition by Liverpool fits well with the club’s tactical direction. It brings more of what head coach Gareth Taylor needs as he constructs a possession-based, attacking team. It is the kind of machine he has had plenty of experience creating, having built a similar side at Manchester City Women in recent years.
‘Machine’ is an important word here because critics have said his City team was robotic and too rigid in its tactics. Taylor never won the WSL with his City team, though a strong case could be made that he came close and only missed out on the prize because of player injuries.
In the end, according to pundits and even a number of City players, it was the freedom brought by new Manchester City Women manager Andrée Jeglertz, in contrast to Taylor’s so-called rigidity, that helped the team win the WSL and FA Cup trophies last season.
Taylor will have a point to prove with his new side at Liverpool. So, this should be fun to follow and see what happens as he builds his team.
Last season, charged with introducing the players to a whole new way of playing, he took the helm of a Liverpool side that was weakened due to key departures, one of which was star forward Olivia Smith, who left for Arsenal in a £1 million ($1.3m) world-record deal.
The campaign was always going to be an uphill battle. They finished one place above the bottom of the table but, crucially, avoided relegation. Taylor also took them to the semifinals of the FA Cup, where they lost to Brighton, a very good side that came back from a 2–0 deficit to beat them 3–2 in that game.
The cup run was a morale-booster and perhaps a reminder that with the right players and resources, Taylor could do some damage with his new team in the future. He would need a reset in the summer transfer window.
That reset is underway, and Itamura is the latest arrival among a number of new acquisitions that include ball-playing footballers such as English defender Mari Ward, Slovenian defender Sara Agrež and goalkeeper Khiara Keating, who left Manchester City and has reunited with her former head coach.
With a year of teething pains behind him and with new players who have the very particular skills to play the game his way, what will Gareth Taylor be able to accomplish this season?