BBC pundit swoons over ‘super-professional’ Liverpool maestro who’s ‘a manager’s dream’
One Liverpool player has been described as ‘a manager’s dream’ by a former Premier League star who’s worked with him at a previous club.
With several big names left at home for the Reds’ Champions League clash against PSV Eindhoven tonight, Wataru Endo is the eldest of those included in the matchday squad.
The Japanese midfielder turns 32 in the next fortnight and is in line for a first European start this season, with the bulk of his game-time under Arne Slot coming in domestic cup competitions (Transfermarkt).
Hitzlsperger heaps praise on Liverpool midfielder Endo
Thomas Hitzlsperger, the one-time Aston Villa midfielder who now works as a pundit for BBC Sport, was formerly chief executive at Endo’s previous club Stuttgart, and he couldn’t speak highly enough of Liverpool’s number 3.
The 42-year-old said of the Japan captain (via The Athletic): “He’s a manager’s dream, because you have a very good player who might not play for 20 games, but if he starts the 21st, he just does exactly what is asked of him.
“Sometimes you want players to be upset at not playing but he’s not the type of player to cause any problems. The best compliment you can pay him is that he just functions. It sounds like a negative, but in a way it is exactly what you want.”
Hitzlsperger continued: “When you have players like that, you just let them get on with it. He’s super-professional and such a family man. He smiles and you think everything is OK. His English isn’t bad but you don’t really get much out of him. He was just happy to train and be a family man – a husband and a father.”
Endo’s attitude has endeared himself to Liverpool fans
Some footballers at an elite level face justified accusations of prima donna behaviour such as throwing a strop at being played ‘out of position’ or substituted, or moaning in public about a lack of game-time at their club. Endo is the antithesis of that.
At 31, it’d be understandable if the Liverpool midfielder were itching to play as much football as he can, with his career approaching its twilight years. Instead, he remains dedicated on the training ground and has himself primed for whenever Slot calls upon him.
Three incidents from this season stand out as testaments to his character. In the dying minutes of hard-fought wins away to Crystal Palace and Southampton, he had the intelligence to take the ball into the corner and do whatever was necessary to run down the clock.
Then, after being on the receiving end of a reckless foul from Ipswich’s Julio Enciso last weekend, Endo didn’t writhe around in agony or seek retribution, instead merely shaking his head a couple of times before carrying on as if nothing had happened.
That’s our number 3 in a nutshell – unflappable and no-frills. That’s why Liverpool brought him in from Stuttgart at a time when many fans were decrying missing out on Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia to Chelsea, and that’s why he’s long since won over the Anfield faithful with his exemplary attitude.
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