Arne Slot Sends ‘Unbelievable’ Wataru Endo Message After Liverpool Midfielder Poleaxed
Arne Slot chose not to criticise the decision to avoid sending off Ipswich Town’s Julio Enciso for poleaxing Wataru Endo during Liverpool’s 4-1 victory at Anfield.
The Liverpool boss reflected on a convincing win in which Cody Gakpo netted twice after Mohamed Salah extended the lead, following Dominik Szoboszlai’s opening goal. However, the Reds missed out on a clean sheet when Jacob Greaves scored a late header.
In the second half, substitute Endo required attention from the medical team after a reckless tackle by fellow substitute Enciso. Despite the dangerous nature of the challenge, referee Michael Salisbury issued only a yellow card to the on-loan Brighton winger.
Slot admitted he had not reviewed the incident by full time but refrained from escalating the matter. He suggested the referee must have made the correct call and commended Endo for his resilience in continuing to play without making a fuss.
“Yeah, when the foul was made, I was like: ‘Oh that doesn’t look good’,” Slot said. “And the reaction from the players that were around him showed me and I was like: ‘Oh let’s wait and see’.
“But after the game, Wata, immediately during the game already, he just shakes his head one or two times and just goes again. His mentality is unbelievable and he was fine. So it was only a yellow so I assume that the fear I had was not realistic because it was only a yellow.
“In general, I don’t think referees act like that (no red card because it wasn’t a close game) because if they do so, they hear it from the people above them: ‘You have to do what is necessary’. I assume it was a yellow, I haven’t watched it back but I assume.”
Slot added: “Yeah [it was comfortable] and that’s mostly because we scored an early goal. It’s been a few times that we have played a home game and conceded a goal at the start of the game.
“Today is the way you want to start a game. We were aggressive, dominant and for 85 minutes, they had hardly been in our half.
“It is a counter-attacking threat with the wingers they have and Delap but we managed to control that so, so well because of the amount of work we put in. In the end, we are all disappointed 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 but the way we did it for 85 minutes was really good.”
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