Wataru Endō has firmly established himself as a true Liverpool hero after his performance against Chelsea in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final. It’s no wonder he collected his winner’s medal with the ‘stiffest legs’ Jürgen Klopp has ever seen.
The Japanese international battled for 120 minutes as one of the few senior players left standing for Liverpool. He has grown in stature every game since making the move to Anfield from Stuttgart, and this was his finest hour — or rather two hours.
Not only that, but he produced that performance against the man who could conceivably have prevented him from ever joining the Reds. That only serves to increase his legend among Liverpool fans.
There can be absolutely no doubt who won the battle between Endō and Moisés Caicedo at Wembley. In fact, if you were asked to pick out the $146m (£115m/€135m) player with no prior knowledge, you’d almost certainly have picked the Liverpool star.
It’s now two games Caicedo has played against the Reds since snubbing a move to Anfield, and twice he has found himself on the losing side while also being made to look very ordinary. Liverpool fans have taken great pleasure in rubbing salt into the Ecuador international’s wounds since Sunday’s final — a quick search of his and Endō’s names on X (formerly Twitter) brings up a video of the Chelsea man getting ‘bodied’ by his counterpart.
That moment rather sums up the two players’ displays. Endō was an absolute rock in the Liverpool midfield, and he used the ball well whenever he could. Caicedo, on the other hand, proved to be lightweight on the ball, while also being far too heavy-handed defensively.
It’s common knowledge at this point that, had things panned out differently last summer, Caicedo probably would have been Liverpool’s first-choice defensive midfielder. Even at just $20m (£16m/€19m), it’s also doubtful whether Endō would have followed him to Anfield, given just how much the former Brighton man would have set the Reds back.
After that performance, Klopp must have been breathing a sigh of relief. There is of course a school of thought that Caicedo wouldn’t have struggled in the same way he is currently had he joined Liverpool, but given his hefty price tag, you’d certainly expect better whatever club he’s at.
“The summer we had, we had a few strange things happen in the transfer market but here, between us, I can say, ‘My god, were we lucky, eh?’,” Klopp said during an Anfield Road test event for fans back in December (via Goal). “We didn’t know that in that moment and it didn’t feel like it in that moment, but yeah, I’m really happy that it worked out, but you never know before.
“We obviously realized that other central defensive midfielders don’t want to join Liverpool, you see what happens, and then we found [Wataru] Endō. He’s an exceptional player.”
Klopp has since sought to clarify those comments further and the context they were meant in, although it turns out he might have been right all along. Liverpool will certainly feel lucky to have Endō, and Caicedo must surely be realizing at this stage he made a major mistake in turning Liverpool down.
