When Wataru Endo first arrived in Europe to play for Belgian club Sint-Truiden in 2018, few of his new teammates knew what to expect. He did not make it off the bench for Japan at this summer’s World Cup. Nor was it easy to communicate.
Issame Charai was an assistant coach at Sint-Truiden. He remembers those early challenges. “He was really shy and his English wasn’t very good so it was difficult,” he says Sky Sports. “He had a lot of pictures to show, show him what we expected.”
But Cheri remembers the day when Ando won over his teammates. It wasn’t on the football pitch, where he would go on to light up his season that would get him to the Bundesliga with Stuttgart before finally making it to Liverpool this season.
It was in an escape room.
The popular task, in which a group tries to solve a puzzle to find a way out of a locked room, was designed as a team bonding exercise. “They had to find some code,” Charai explains. “We had some cameras so we could check what the players were doing.”
No prizes for guessing who the problem solver was. “We found that it was Ando who discovered many of the codes himself. He is very intelligent on the pitch. But this is a man who is also very intelligent off the pitch. Which earned him a lot of credit along with other players. “
Almost six years on and Endo is providing the solution for Liverpool – or saving his life as Jurgen Klopp put it after the 3-0 win over Brentford. A late addition in the window, the 31-year-old midfielder was not the superstar signing desired by supporters.
But they love him now.
“What can you expect? That he will be a standout player in the Premier League? That he will be a good player, we know, but what is he doing to this role,” Klopp enthused. “You never know when people can progress to world class, but that’s what happened.”
Endo had been outstanding for Stuttgart but the surprise at his impact is still understandable. This was a team that had just avoided relegation last season. Liverpool is a club with high hopes but one with a glaring difference.
The departure of Fabinho and Jordan Henderson, along with Thiago’s injury problems, quickly escalated the situation. It turns out that this is a wonderful business. Endo has already helped Liverpool win the Carabao Cup and is now a key figure as they chase the big prize.
At Stuttgart, when he first joined and had to wait for his chance, it was the great German striker Mario Gomes who favored him. Speaking to Gomez with a group of journalists in Munich earlier this season, he described the scene after the match.
“We had four against four,” Gomez said of those warm-down routines reserved for substitutes. “When I got into the dressing room I always asked the coach to put me in the same team as Wataru because then we would never lose.” I love Wataru.
Gomes refers to Ando as “an example of how team play should be seen” because of his attitude – someone who is “always giving everything for the group” – and it is notable that his new teammates and manager They are already telling the same story. the player
Dominic Szoboszlai, a former opponent, notes that he appears everywhere. “It feels like you pass him and then you turn around and he’s already there.” Klopp described Endo as a machine. “He’s one of the hardest working people I’ve ever met.”
But it’s not all about effort. “His defensive mind is fantastic,” says Klopp. His presence in the midfield has changed the dynamic. “He gives the team something different, we have to say that, it’s clear. He is one for Token,” added the Liverpool boss.
“He gives us a lot of freedom for a lot of things.”
Alexis McAllister, in particular, has been relieved of his responsibilities as a holding midfielder and allowed to play a game that more naturally suits his talents. Floating and circling in advanced areas, he is freed to close aggressively.
The mixture is better. The dramatic FA Cup defeat to Manchester United didn’t show Ando at his best – although he was denied a goal following a VR check – but it was a blip at the end of a demanding schedule. The numbers show his real impact.
In the Premier League this season, Ando is the player who has scored the fewest goals in the 90 minutes he has been on the pitch. It’s not a coincidence, as Charie, his old coach from Belgium, points out. “His biggest quality is that he provides balance to the team.”
He added: “He is a guy who reads the game very well. He always thinks about what he has to do when his team loses the ball. He likes to play one and two touches, so he Doesn’t complicate the game too much. But his technique is good and he is very strong mentally.
“He is the player you need.”
Chari believes there is more to come. “Maybe you haven’t seen in England yet that he can score with his head and he has a good shot from distance.” But with or without goals, Ando is already proving to be the player Liverpool need. Klopp’s last deal.
The red boss will be gone at the end of the season but hopefully Ando will stick around for a bit longer. “He could be 31 on his passport but he’s not,” Klopp joked. In the meantime, Endo might help crack the code to leave him with at least one more trophy.
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