A LOT LESS EN-DOUGH
Liverpool’s new ’boy’ may be £100m cheaper than Caicedo, but he still thinks he can add experience and extra value to the Reds’ rich heritage
IT is hard to imagine an upside to a collective officiating decision so poor that it almost called into question the neutrality of the officials involved.
Yet if the entire football world was left baffled by Alexis Mac Allister’s red card – which so clearly should have been overturned by VAR Paul Tierney (who has a long and troubling history with Jurgen Klopp) – then it did lead directly to the most romantic moment of a wild Premier League game.
Shortly afterwards, blinking into the bright lights of Anfield, came a bemused Wataru Endo for what was a remarkable Liverpool debut against Bournemouth, just hours after his international clearance had landed.
To say the signing of the Japan captain was leftfield is an understatement. It took even the midfielder himself by surprise. “I only found out three or four days ago there was a chance!” he explained afterwards.
“It was so so quick. At the beginning of the week I was getting ready to play in the Bundesliga; at the end of the week I am playing here at Anfield in front of all these fans – it is crazy!”
What is also crazy is that Liverpool went from committing to spend £111million on a holding midfielder in Moises Caicedo to spending almost £100m less on an alternative in the same position. Only in the mad world of football transfers can that happen.
Endo is 30 and hardly fits the profile of the Anfield club, who almost exclusively sign young players with potential. Yet he has always dreamed of playing for a big Premier League club and hoped that his experience might get him that move.
“I knew Liverpool wanted midfielders but I thought Caicedo was going there,” he said. “So when he went to Chelsea I just thought ‘maybe.’
“I thought maybe they needed experienced midfielders because Henderson had moved, and also Fabinho had moved to another club, so I thought there may be a chance. It happened so quickly but I couldn’t say no because to play in the Premier League was my dream.”
Endo was not alone in feeling like a stranger. Liverpool’s back five looked for the opening 15 minutes like they’d never met. Bournemouth capitalised with a fine goal from Antoine Semenyo and could easily have gone further ahead.
A soft Mo Salah penalty and then a fine Luis Diaz strike restored order, but it was only after Mac Allister was dismissed on his Anfield debut (below) that the home team finally started to look like a team, with Dominik Szoboszlai looking a real find and Diaz excelling.
But that red card – followed four minutes later by Diogo Jota’s clinching goal – means a potential three-match ban for Mac Allister and more games coming up than Endo would have expected.
“I am an experienced player so I need to accept this situation,” he said.