Liverpool: Arne Slot delivers Wataru Endo injury update after Ryan Gravenberch substitution

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·25. Januar 2025

Liverpool: Arne Slot delivers Wataru Endo injury update after Ryan Gravenberch substitution

Reds maintain their six-point lead at the top of the Premier League table with a routine win at Anfield

The Reds cruised to a 4-1 victory over Ipswich Town on Saturday afternoon thanks to a Cody Gakpo brace in addition to goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Mohamed Salah.

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Such was Liverpool’s dominant position after Gakpo’s second of the afternoon, Slot opted to ring the changes and hand a rest to Ryan Gravenberch in particular.

On in the Dutchman’s place was Endo but he was on the receiving end of a high challenge from Julio Enciso, who himself was a second half substitute.

The Ipswich debutant was shown a yellow card for his tackle and Slot has admitted he initially feared the worst.

Slot said: “Yes, when the foul was made I was like, that doesn’t look good, and the reactions from the players that were around him showed me. I was like, let’s wait and see, but immediately during the game already he shakes his head one or two times and just goes again.

“His mentality is unbelievable – and he was fine. It was only a yellow so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic because it was only a yellow.

Wataru Endo was on the receiving end of a strong tackle from Julio Enciso.

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Liverpool’s win means they remain six points clear of Arsenal at the top of the Premier League table having played one game fewer than their closest title rivals.

Though despite the comfortable win, Slot wasn’t best pleased with his side’s failure to keep a clean sheet.

“Yeah, that’s mostly because we scored an early goal. It’s been a few times now that we played a home game that we conceded a goal in the start of the game, but I think today is the way you want to start the game: we were aggressive, dominant,” he added.

“For 85 minutes they have hardly been in our half I think. It is a counter-attack threat with the wingers they have and with [Liam] Delap but we managed to control that so, so, so well because of the amount of work we have put in.

“In the end, we are all a bit disappointed with conceding [from] a corner – the first one this season – but for 85 minutes it was almost a perfect performance, against a team that goes to such a low block. That’s not always easy then, but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.”