Liverpool head coach Arne Slot personally "slap" our website's female rumour monger "Ms. Titan" "in the face" for fabricating that Wataru Endo had "fallen out of favour" many months ago..

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot personally praised the club's Japan international defensive midfielder Wataru Endo at a press conference before their Premier League away match against Aston Villa on Thursday (February 20) in Asia time on Tuesday, and indirectly "slapped" our website's female rumour monger "Ms. Titan" "in the face" who deliberately fabricated a fake article which claimed that the player had "fallen out of favour" a few months ago.

Slot said at the press conference that Endo is a player with strong mental qualities, extremely useful to the team, very dedicated, and never disappoints the team. Whether in the past or in the future, he will always be indispensable for the team.

"I think Wataru has been very useful to us this season," Slot said.

"Sometimes, the importance of a player to the team is not measured by how many minutes you play. You can be one of the most important players in just 2 minutes, and you can be less important in 90 minutes."

"But in my opinion, what makes Wataru Endo so special is that whether it is 5, 10, 20 or 25 minutes, whenever we need him, he always gives his best performance to the best of his ability."

"It sounds very simple, but it is not, because when a player does not get many opportunities to play, It is not easy for you to have such a strong mentality and give your best performance when the team needs you.

"Usually when you pay attention to a player who doesn't often get the chance to play, you will find that they have difficulty adapting to the rhythm of the game or perform poorly because they don't often get the chance to play."

"The only thing I can say is that defense is relatively simpler than creating attacking chances. If you let a player who doesn't often get the chance to play create attacking chances, then yes, you may find that you may face some problems compared to defense."

"However, he has always been very important to us, and he will still be so important in the next few weeks."

Slot's remarks directly "slapped" "Ms. Ttitan "in the face" who deliberately fabricate an article a few months ago by claiming that the Japan national team captain had "fallen out of favour" just because Endo was given the role of super sub this season!

On October 25, 2024, "Ms. Titan" deliberately fabricate an article by using the title "the 31-year-old Titan cannot get consistent playing time and only played for the team for 3 minutes in 3 games" just because Endo was only given the opportunity to play as a substitute, by falsely claiming that the former Stuttgart captain has "fallen out of favuor".

The article is full of asking the player that he should find a way out for his "only playing for the team for 3 minutes" dilemma, and that is, transfer to other European clubs, "to keep his hope that he will not be abandoned by the "Samurai Blues".

To put it bluntly, for "Ms. Titan", a player either gets a chance to start, or at least plays close to the full game. If he is reduced to a substitute, he is "out of favour"! This is simply nonsense!

In fact, we have always wanted to find an opportunity to respond to this malicious article, but unfortunately, due to the busy work, we have not been able to make time properly, so the matter has been postponed, and we have even forgotten that we want to make a response.

It was not until we took the time to watch this pre-match press conference clip of Slot yesterday that we suddenly remembered this again, so we made time to really respond to it.

Anyone with at least a little knowledge about football knows that in tactical systems, there are two different types of defensive midfielders, one is a Destroyer and the other is B2B (Box-to-Box) Midfielder.

In Jürgen Klopp's system, the defensive midfielder is mainly composed of a Destroyer, a B2B and a right-wing back and a defensive midfielder hybrid type of  defensive midfielder (Inverted Full-back - Trent Alexander-Arnold). Slot's system focuses on double B2B. The two are completely different tactical systems.

Wataru Endo  is a "destroyer" type of defensive midfielder, whose main task is to intercept or possession the ball  as much as possible in front of the defender's defensive line to help the defenders stop the opponent's attack in advance.

His teammate, Netherlands international defensive midfielder wonderkid Ryan Gravenberch who plays the undispted first choice role this season, is a "B2B type" defensive midfielder, who not only has to take into account defense, but also participate in the transition between attack and defense as much as possible, helping attacking midfielders, wingers and center forwards to create scoring opportunities.

Simply put, Gravenberch was given the same position as his Argentine teammate Alexis Mac Allister.

Based on the fact that Liverpool's current tactical system is fundamentally different, Endo cannot be compared with Gravenberch at all.

So, next time before determining whether a player has "fallen out of favour", please study and sort out whether his chances of playing have been reduced due to changes in the tactical system, rather than just judging whether a player is a key player based just on the "number of minutes" he has played.

If we follow this logic that "Ms. Titan" has, not only in the Premier League, but in every other league in the world, aren't the substitute goalkeepers of every club have all "fallen out of favour" all the time?!