Jurgen Klopp has heaped huge praise on one of his players who he has claimed is ‘one of the hardest working people’ he’s ever met.
Wataru Endo was one of four midfielders to be signed by Liverpool in the summer with him completing a £16m switch from Bundesliga outfit Stuttgart.
The Japan international threw in a superb display on Wednesday night as the Reds thrashed West Ham 5-1 at Anfield and our German tactician was keen to discuss our No. 3’s in his press conference earlier today.
“Getting used to it,” Klopp responded when asked what has led to some consistent performances from Endo. “Just like that we forgot, we don’t give people time anymore, internally we do, but because we speak every three days about these kind of things it feels that after four weeks because we speak already so long about it, when will it finally click?
“Some of the biggest players this club in my era ever saw needed time to adapt, some others didn’t, but some big players did. Andy Robertson didn’t play for half a year, pretty much wasn’t in the squad.
“Fabinho we had to change system for because he couldn’t play six alone, then later on he could easily and he made it his position.
“But when we see him [Endo] everyday in training he’s one of the hardest working people I have ever met, it was always clear it would be good. But I am happy for him that the public could see it now as well because that’s pretty helpful in our job.
“He gives something different to the team, that’s clear. He’s the one for the tackles, we don’t have 20 players on the pitch who have tackling as a hobby, but he’s doing it. On top of that his passing is really good, his awareness is really good, he finds his position better in possession. All of these things, it’s football and sometimes it takes a little bit of time. That’s no problem for me.”
Klopp is right to highlight the fact that Endo is a rather unique player in our squad.
He’s someone who loves a tackle and unlike many of our other midfielders, his role is to prevent goals rather than to score them.
The 30-year-old has, however, netted twice already this term (across all competitions) and is starting to show why he was brought to the club with his exceptional reading of the game and ability to offer protection to our backline – the job which Fabinho did so well for many years before his departure in the summer.
Dominik Szoboszlai hit the ground running at the club, as have many of our signings down the years, but some players require a little bit of time and patience before we see them at their best.
Endo is one of those players who has gradually improved this term and it’ll be interesting to see if he retains his spot in the staring XI when Arsenal visit Anfield tomorrow evening.
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