Wataru Endo responds after breaking Mohamed Salah streak

Wataru Endo responded on Twitter after breaking Mohamed Salah's streak by winning Liverpool's Player of the Month award. The midfielder has been fantastic.

Wataru Endo was named Standard Chartered Player of the Month at Liverpool for December. It represents a massive turnaround for the Japan international - it wasn't too long ago that he was seriously struggling.

But December has been his month. Endo became the first Liverpool player to start five games in 13 days since 2006. The Reds shone brightly over that spell, too, and his effect on the side was incredible.

Liverpool went from being a pretty frail team defensively to giving up just three shots on target while Endo was on the pitch for those five games. He's quite plainly making a massive difference and his place in the team is a solid one.

Endo responded on Twitter to winning the award, saying: "Thank you for always supporting me [Liverpool] fans. I will keep doing my best."

And Endo has done something else quite special in simply being Liverpool's best player in the month of December. That's usually a place reserved for Mohamed Salah.

Salah has been Liverpool's Player of the Month in December every year since he joined the club, except for 2019. Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up the award that year but Salah has had it in the bag before and since.

And so Endo actually breaks a streak here of three straight years with the Egyptian winning the award in December.

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We say Endo's place in the side is solid and safe but it's actually gone for now. He's with Japan for the Asian Cup and that keeps him away from the Liverpool team for the foreseeable future. He may not return until after the 10th of February, in fact.

Liverpool will need to find ways to cope without him and we've got four ideas here. We'll have to wait and see what Jurgen Klopp does because all of a sudden, he's losing a key midfielder.