Mo Salah isn’t the only Liverpool player who’ll be sorely missed in January because of participation in a continental championship.
Wataru Endo will be off to represent Japan at the Asian Cup in Qatar next month, and he showed with his performance against Arsenal this evening that he’ll be a loss to his club for whatever length of time he spends at the tournament.
As per Sofascore, the 30-year-old won six duels against the Gunners (joint-third most of any Reds player), completed 42 of his 48 passes (88% success rate), and made three tackles and two interceptions.
While most of his pass completion owed to efficiently keeping the play ticking over, there was one delightful long ball to Luis Diaz in the first half, and he intelligently recycled possession once being put under pressure by opponents.
Bukayo Saka will also be glad to see the back of him, with Endo halting the Arsenal attacker in his tracks on several occasions, and the amount of defensive work the Liverpool midfielder got through tonight marked him out as something of an unsung hero for Jurgen Klopp’s side.
You can view the highlights of Endo’s performance below, via @1947production on X (formerly Twitter):
Endo vs Arsenal pic.twitter.com/wL440wOAqe
— 1947 (@1947production) December 23, 2023