Jurgen Klopp says £50,000-a-week Liverpool player was ‘absolutely insane’ vs Toulouse last night
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has heaped praise on Wataru Endo after his performance against Toulouse in the Europa League last night.
The Reds smashed five past the French side, who were nowhere near good enough to compete. It was an easy evening for Liverpool‘s players, and Endo made the most of the situation by scoring his first-ever goal for the club. Klopp was blown away by his display.
Jurgen Klopp says Liverpool’s Wataru Endo was ‘absolutely insane’ vs Toulouse
Liverpool signed Wataru Endo from Stuttgart in the summer, and not many people were convinced with the signing.
The Reds had missed out on Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia when they decided to make a move to sign the Japan international, and he was viewed by several people as a panic buy.
Endo clearly is not a world-beater in his role, but he is a quality player. He started in the middle of the park last night and arguably had his best game in a Liverpool shirt.
The 30-year-old was absolutely outstanding. He controlled the game from the midfield, was very good on the ball, and he even scored a goal.
Liverpool fans loved his performance last night, and Klopp singled him out for praise in his press conference after the game.
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He said, as per Liverpoolfc.com: “I like a lot of individual performances but I would like to mention Waturu Endo.
“I’m not sure people think that’s spectacular or whatever, but the forward passes he played tonight were absolutely incredible and how often he broke lines with one touch was absolutely insane and then he scores a wonderful goal, which helps each player – even a more experienced player.
“So that’s really cool. He would have got a similar hug if I would have taken him off.”
Jurgen Klopp Wataru Endo Liverpool
Photo by Matt McNulty/Getty Images
Wataru Endo’s stats vs Toulouse
Apart from Ryan Gravenberch, Wataru Endo was probably Liverpool’s best player last night.
The £50,000-a-week (Spotrac) Japan international had 87 touches of the ball and completed 66 of his 69 attempted passes, thus maintaining an excellent passing accuracy of 96 per cent.
He made three interceptions, five tackles and despite not being the biggest guy on the pitch, won 10 of his 15 attempted duels, which is not bad at all. (SofaScore)
Endo is definitely not a regular starter for Liverpool, but he’s more than capable of coming on and doing a job for the Reds whenever Klopp needs him.
