Arne Slot confirms Liverpool's transfer stance on Wataru Endo amid £14m bid

Arne Slot revealed that Wataru Endo remains important for the squad despite his lack of minutes for Liverpool so far.

The Japan captain played 44 times last season and, despite a slow start, eventually became a key starter for Jurgen Klopp at the base of the three-man midfield. Over the summer, we saw Liverpool linked with multiple midfield targets and their most-profile potential deal saw them fail in a bid to acquire Martin Zubimendi.

With the profile he would have brought, Slot confirmed that he desired a player who was more technically-gifted in Endo’s role, therefore confirming his squad status as a back-up. Ryan Gravenberch has been his replacement thus fat and it looks like he will continue to be the first-choice going forward.

Asked what Endo has to do for more minutes after the 2-0 win over Brentford, Slot said: “It is not always about the player himself, it’s also about the competition he faces. We have many good midfielders like we have many good players. We are really pleased with the way Wata is training for us, but he has some good competition and I think you saw [vs. Brentford] a good performance from all three midfielders.

“So it is not always about him it is also about the others. He will be important for us during the season because we need all of them; we all know how long a season can be over here and how many players you need. And he is one of them that we are going to need in the upcoming season.”

We did see confirmed reports that Marseille had offered Liverpool £14m to sign the 31-year-old earlier this summer and with a total of two bids rejected it seems the club are standing firm. Selling him this close to the end of the window would also leave them in a precarious and desperate situation when it comes to finding a replacement and, given Slot’s comments on the transfer window, it looks like that won’t be the case.

“I inherited a really good team, a team of many young players as well and I think we all know, especially young players they can develop. We just try to work as hard as we can with them and trust them a lot. They proved last week they have earned this trust and I am hoping they can show the same on Sunday as well.”