“It was well deserved to lose because they won pretty much all the decisive challenges, battles,” Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp said after his side fell 3-2 to a Toulouse side that sits one point above the relegation places in Ligue 1. “We have too many situations where we should have won the ball but we didn’t.”
If this was the Reds’ biggest issue in Thursday’s night defeat — their first of the season in the Europa League — then it follows that midfielder Wataru Endō was among those most culpable. Endō failed to win any of the five ground duels he contested during his 45 minutes on the pitch before he was substituted at half-time.
The door was open for the $20m (£17m/€19m) summer signing from Stuttgart to seal his place in the XI for Sunday’s Premier League clash with Brentford after Alexis Mac Allister picked up a suspension for accumulating too many yellow cards, but he wasn’t able to walk through it. While Klopp might have planned pre-match to withdraw Endō at the break with one eye at the weekend, he may ultimately have taken him off for different reasons.
Indeed, the Japan captain should really have been sent off after committing a yellow-card-worthy challenge when he was already on a booking, and his next foul would likely have resulted in a dismissal. It should now be regarded as far from a certainty that he plays on Sunday.
Who, though, is the alternative? We’ve already mentioned that Mac Allister is unavailable, and both Thiago and Stefan Bajčetić remain out through injury. Curtis Jones has had some experience of operating as a number six, but he’s poised to miss the game with a minor complaint. Liverpool is definitely short of options.
One potential wildcard candidate is Dominik Szoboszlai, supported by the inverting Trent Alexander-Arnold. Speaking to Liverpool.com after the 22-year-old’s move to Anfield, national team manager Marco Rossi said his captain possesses ‘all the skills’ to thrive in the role and emulate the great Andrea Pirlo.
“I know he said that he doesn’t like too much to play in this position,” he said. “But I really think that in the future, he could be a fantastic number six. He has all the skills to be in this position, like [Andrea] Pirlo was, just to give an example. I think Pirlo was the best in this position in the last 15 years, and Dominik has really good skills to play in this position.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Szoboszlai has dropped into holding midfield for the Reds. He took up the role after Mac Allister’s red card against Bournemouth in August, though he admitted afterwards that the manager was ‘screaming’ at him because of his ongoing desire to get forward (via Mirror).
He showed more discipline when he anchored the midfield in the second half away to Wolves the following month after a weary Mac Allister had come off the break. Klopp described the solution as ‘very offensive’ but hailed the ‘really smart’ Szoboszlai for making it work.
Part of the reason Klopp has used Mac Allister as an unorthodox six is that Liverpool dominates possession in the majority of games, meaning his on-ball qualities matter more than his off-ball deficiencies. That same logic could be applied to Szoboszlai here given that Brentford ranks 13th in the league for average possession share at 48.3 per cent, and has averaged just 32.3 per cent in its three games against ‘big six’ opposition so far this season.
The problem is the shortage of number eights available. Klopp was hopeful that Ryan Gravenberch may return to contention for the weekend, and he could offer some much-needed support, but if he isn’t back in time, then the manager might need to use Cody Gakpo in one of the advanced midfield roles alongside Elliott. That might seem overly attacking, but it’s worth noting that Gakpo played as an eight in this fixture last season and would at least offer some height against one of the most direct teams in the division.
It’s admittedly an imperfect answer for Klopp, and it would be a particularly damning reflection on Endō. But unfortunately, on the basis of Thursday night’s game, it would also be justified.
