At half-time of Liverpool’s victory over Leicester on Wednesday night, it felt like we had been witnessing one other insignificant second in Wataru Endo‘s early Anfield profession.
That’s no criticism of the Japanese; most gamers don’t adapt to a brand new membership and a brand new league right away, and so discover it difficult to make an impression on their preliminary outings.
After all, there are exceptions by way of becoming in instantaneously, with Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk or Dominik Szoboszlai coming to thoughts within the Jurgen Klopp period.
However, most of the time, new signings observe the likes of Darwin Nunez, Fabinho or Andy Robertson in taking time to settle into new environment.
This may be difficult by the adjustments any particular person would expertise in transferring metropolis, and even nation, with Endo’s spouse and 4 kids solely not too long ago becoming a member of him on Merseyside.
When that occurs, these first video games within the crimson shirt find yourself being little greater than alternatives to study, relatively than probabilities for the participant to point out what they’re about – a class it appeared Wednesday’s fixture would fall into for Endo.
If there was any frustration with the 30-year-old midway by means of this newest begin, it was that there was a well-recognized tentativeness to his efficiency.
Solely final week, Klopp stated of Endo: “Wataru is an excellent man, very calm and really well mannered and that value him the primary two weeks, possibly. That’s now getting there.”
And in opposition to the Foxes, it appeared that he was once more falling into the entice of permitting the 90 minutes to cross him by.
However then the half-time break got here, after which Endo reappeared wanting like a person decided to announce his arrival as a Liverpool participant.
He ended the sport as a key architect in yet one more come-from-behind 3-1 win for the Reds, managing a match-leading 4 interceptions and a really tidy 90.4 p.c cross completion charge.
And, although it could appear odd to spotlight as a optimistic, the 4 fouls he made (greater than some other participant on the pitch) additionally felt encouraging.
The hesitance that Klopp had beforehand commented on was lengthy gone, changed by a battle that maybe confirmed that Endo wears a gum defend for good motive.
This was significantly evident in a crunching sort out on Kiernan Dewsbury-Corridor that was shortly adopted by him organising Szoboszlai for a shot from vary (certainly one of two key passes from Liverpool’s No. 3 on the evening).
There was additionally a cerebral high quality to a lot of his interventions, with each Cody Gakpo‘s purpose and that memorable strike from Szoboszlai coming within the aftermath of Endo being in the suitable place on the proper time as Leicester tried to clear.
It’s this mixture of craft and graft that may permit the Japan captain to develop into greater than only a go-to starter in secondary cup competitions for Liverpool going ahead.
Given a lot of his first 5 outings for the membership had made it tough to envisage such an final result, the sixth felt like a serious step ahead.
