Wataru Endo had to operate as a defender for successive games as Liverpool earned a 6-0 win over Qarabag.
Arne Slot saluted the performance of Wataru Endo for once again coming to Liverpool’s aid.
The midfielder had to operate as a makeshift defender off the bench yet again in the 6-0 victory over Qarabag in the Champions League.
In last weekend’s 3-2 defeat by Bournemouth, Endo replaced the injured Joe Gomez at centre-back in the first half, with Ibrahima Konate absent following the passing of his father.
Then, inside four minutes, Endo had to be flung into action against Qarabag as Jeremie Frimpong was forced off. The Japan international had to be deployed at right-back and helped deliver a resounding victory. Alexis Mac Allister was at the double, while there were goals from Florian Wirtz - his first in Europe since joining Liverpool - Hugo Ekitike, Mo Salah and Federico Chiesa.
However, with the Reds’ next two Premier League games against Newcastle United and Manchester City, Slot knows that his side are in for much sterner tests. On Endo’s display, the Anfield head coach said: Positive, as we're used to from Wata. You give him a job and he does it with all he's got. Today he did really well. What you lack a little bit if you play him over there [is] you don't have as many overlaps or one-v-one quality as maybe Jeremie Frimpong has.
“But what he does is so decent, concentrated and focused. The good thing was that, of course, today we were only attacking. That is helpful if you only have attacking players on the pitch, so the real test, of course, is for our last line – if we have to play with the same one again – if you face Newcastle and Manchester City, which I rate a bit above Qarabag. But for tonight, of course it is nice if you play with such an offensive line-up that you are able to have so much ball possession, score so many goals and hardly give away anything.”
Liverpool’s emphatic win ensured a third-place finish in the league phase of the Champions League and a place in the last 16 of the competition.
On the achievement, Slot said: “It's what you want if you start the Champions League season – you want to finish top eight. That helps, of course, because you skip a round and sometimes you can have a really hard team to play against in a round like that, which is shown by the teams you just mentioned. So, we are happy that we are going straight away to the last 16, especially because it's only two years ago that we were playing Europa League and we went out in the quarter-finals against Atalanta. So, two seasons in a row now being in the last 16, and last season we were very hungry for more and we will definitely be hungry for more this season as well.”
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