Wataru Endo has only played 91 minutes of Premier League football since relocating from Stuttgart to Liverpool in the summer. The causes of this have been explained by Jurgen Klopp.
Wataru Endo is a “super-important” player for Liverpool, according to Jurgen Klopp, despite his limited playing time this year.
The Reds signed Endo as one of four new midfielders after losing James Milner, Naby Keita, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jordan Henderson, and Fabinho. Two additional recent signings, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai, have started each and every game since joining.
Ryan Gravenberch, who did not receive enough playing time at his previous team Bayern Munich, is being gradually brought up to speed in the meanwhile. Klopp has now explained why Endo has only played 91 minutes of Premier League action since joining the club from Stuttgart in August.
In Sunday’s 3-1 victory against West Ham, Endo made his Liverpool debut after coming off the bench. Endo was still adjusting to life at Anfield, according to Klopp, who added that his “very calm and very polite” demeanor “cost him the first two weeks.” He also highlighted that the 30-year-old “will start games” and is “not a short-term project”.
According to Klopp, he needs to become accustomed to his surroundings. Wataru is an admirable individual who is calm and courteous, and it’s possible that such qualities cost him the first two weeks. That time is now drawing near. He is getting better every day, despite the fact that he is not yet 30 or anything else, and some people need to be moved out of the way so he may join the squad.
He’s there, he’ll help us out a lot, he’ll play games, he’ll start games, and all that stuff, you saw it today. He has already participated in three or four games for us in a short period of time, so everything is great. This project will take some time; that is what counts. Wataru is an essential component of the team.
Liverpool has had a spotless start to the season, drawing their opener against Chelsea before defeating Bournemouth, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Wolves, and West Ham. They also had a successful opening round in the Europa League on Thursday, defeating LASK 3-1 after coming from behind.
And Klopp is happy with the “crazy” options available to him with his new Liverpool 2.0 team. He said after the win over LASK in Austria, “I love the squad and I love the depth.”
For a team that still lacks Thiago, Trent, and Conor Bradley, we can still change 11 names. It’s totally crazy. If everything goes according to plan, which I define as everyone being healthy, and we have 23 players
Naturally, successful outcomes promote interpersonal harmony. It always is that way. We all came here to win this game, and we all succeeded in doing so.