Arne Slot was relieved that Wataru Endo avoided injury after suffering a knee injury in Liverpool’s 4-1 win over Ipswich, even accepting a yellow card decision.
Ipswich forward Julio Enciso was on the pitch with a minute to play when he suffered a nasty challenge from Endo. His studs found the midfielder’s stomach and his knee collided with his face.
Endo remained on the grass, tending to his chin, only to see referee Michael Salisbury book Enciso for a reckless and dangerous tackle.
Fortunately, Liverpool’s third was able to stop the blow and play for the remainder of the 4–1 win, remaining on and off the ball.
In the post-fight press conference, Slot gave his view on the incident and praised Endo for his fighting spirit.
“When the foul was made I thought, ‘Oh, that doesn’t look good,’ and the reaction of the players around me showed me like, ‘We’ll just have to wait and see,'” he told reporters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHMBZXJP-OS
“But already during the game I shake my head once or twice and go again.
“His spirit is incredible. And he was fine.
“Because it was yellow, I assume the fears I had were not realistic.”
With Liverpool already 4-0 up and coming off a win, Slot disagreed and asked whether he felt Salisbury had been generous to Enciso given the context of the game.
“I don’t think referees generally act like that,” he claimed.
“If they do that, they’ll probably hear it from people above them, so ‘you’ve got to do what needs to be done.’
“So I assume it’s yellow. I haven’t seen it again, but I think it’s yellow.”
There is some doubt that Enciso escaped the red card. Events elsewhere were particularly given, as Arsenal full-back Myles Lewis-Skelly was dismissed for a much lighter offense in the 1-0 win over Wolves.
Ironically, there’s an argument to be made that Slots would have seemed harsher about the situation.
Endo is expected to get more game time next week as Liverpool visit PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League and Bournemouth in the Premier League.
Of course, it’s still possible that the impact of Enciso’s challenge will become stronger in the hours following Saturday’s game, but so far there are no signs of that.
