Liverpool's EFL Cup Journey: Frimpong and Endo's Struggles
Liverpool are through to the fourth round of the EFL Cup. On paper, that’s the headline. In reality, Tuesday night at Anfield told a much sharper story about who Andoni Iraola trusts – and who he very clearly doesn’t.
The Spaniard ripped up his weekend team sheet, making 10 changes from the side that drew with Fulham. This was the classic cup gamble: fringe players, academy prospects, and those fighting to stay relevant handed a stage against Tottenham Hotspur. Some seized it. Others watched their Liverpool careers shrink under the floodlights.
Frimpong Targeted, Not Trusted
Jeremie Frimpong was one of those thrown in. On the face of it, this should have been his kind of night. Iraola loves attacking full-backs, wants them high, aggressive, relentless. The Netherlands international has built his reputation on exactly that.
But this was not a performance to quiet the doubters.
Starting at right-back, Frimpong offered little going forward and looked vulnerable going the other way. Spurs saw it early and went after him. Time and again his flank became the launchpad for their attacks, with Mathys Tel, Mohammed Kudus and Omar Marmoush all taking turns at isolating him.
For 90 minutes he struggled to contain them. The pattern was hard to ignore, and so were the groans from sections of the home support. Frimpong has already taken plenty of criticism since arriving on Merseyside, and this display did nothing to shift the mood.
The context makes it worse. He joined from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2025 for around £30m, a fee that came with the expectation he would be a long-term pillar of the side. Instead, he currently sits behind Ronald Araujo in the right-back hierarchy, and that gap feels like it’s widening.
It doesn’t stop there. Conor Bradley is closing in on a return from injury and is highly regarded inside the club. When he’s fit, the battle for that right-back slot becomes even more unforgiving.
Right now, Frimpong is being spoken about as one of the weakest links in the squad. That’s a brutal label at a club of Liverpool’s size, and it feeds into a bigger issue: they still haven’t replaced what Trent Alexander-Arnold gave them before his move to Real Madrid. The search for a true first-choice right-back, the kind who can define that side of the pitch, may yet drag on into another transfer window.
For Frimpong, the message is stark. He has a lot of improving to do just to prove he has a future at Anfield, never mind to become the answer to a question Liverpool have been asking since their former No. 66 left.
Endo Frozen Out
If Frimpong’s night was difficult, Wataru Endo’s was worse. He didn’t even get one.
This was the sort of fixture that should have been made for him. Ten changes, kids starting, senior stars rotated. An EFL Cup tie at home with minutes to hand out and reputations to assess.
Endo still never left the bench.
The 33-year-old was already hit with a major blow last week when he was left out of Liverpool’s 25-man Champions League squad, alongside Federico Chiesa. Instead, youngsters James McConnell and Trey Nyoni were included ahead of him. That decision said plenty. Tuesday underlined it.
Endo has not played a single minute in Liverpool’s four Premier League games so far this season. With Iraola rotating heavily against Spurs, it looked the obvious chance to use a player who cost £16m and can cover both midfield and defence.
He had even shown promise as a centre-back in pre-season against Como. That experiment has not been revisited.
Instead, Iraola handed starts to 22-year-old McConnell and 19-year-old Nyoni in midfield. Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai were kept back on the bench, but even with that mix of youth and established quality, Endo remained an onlooker.
The manager hasn’t hidden his thinking.
“The problem is, in front of him in his position, I have a lot of players,” Iraola said recently. “He’s competing against a lot of players because we are also giving minutes to Trey (Nyoni), Ryan (Gravenberch), Alexis (Mac Allister), Dom (Szoboszlai), players that I am selecting right now. But Wata is definitely a player that I like and for sure he will have his moments.”
The words are polite. The reality is ruthless.
If you can’t get on the pitch in a game like this – with heavy rotation, youngsters trusted, and a home crowd behind you – when exactly are those “moments” supposed to arrive?
Endo’s contract expires at the end of the season. That alone would make his situation delicate. Add the fact that multiple players are clearly ahead of him in Iraola’s plans, and the picture becomes almost unavoidable.
Liverpool have one last realistic chance to recoup a fee for him in January. Right now, every selection call points in the same direction: the manager doesn’t fancy him, and the club will likely listen to offers.
For Frimpong, there is still time to turn things around, to show he can be more than a £30m misfit. For Endo, time at Anfield feels like it’s already ticking into stoppage.
