The best performer in the Liverpool midfield last year is yet to play a minute in pre-season , but Alexis Mac Allister did rejoin his teammates at the back end of last week. As it stands, he is the most obvious option to play as the number six for Arne Slot .
The Argentine is perhaps best further forward — and certainly prefers to play a more attacking role — but Mac Allister spent most of last season playing as the deepest-lying Liverpool midfielder and he might have to do the same again in the coming months. In the absence of an option to buy on the transfer market to come in and play there, he is the best of the existing options.
The only natural defensive midfielder on the Liverpool roster is Wataru Endo but Slot appears to have set his stall out with the Japan captain. He looked uncomfortable in possession in the first friendly of the summer and then fell out of favor for the next two.
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Endo started the game with Real Betis but once Diogo Jota returned, he dropped out of the team for the win over Arsenal with Harvey Elliott moving back into midfield. Even when Dominik Szoboszlai was fatigued and missed the Manchester United match, Endo was still benched, with the only-just-returned Ryan Gravenberch playing as the number six, helped by Curtis Jones .
Earlier in the summer, a bid from Marseille worth $15m (£12m/€14m) was rejected for Endo. Roberto de Zerbi has already signed alternatives with the Ligue 1 side but there is interest in the 31-year-old from elsewhere, including in the Bundesliga.
And the fact that a bid was even tabled suggests that some encouragement was offered from somewhere. Endo would be welcome to stay at Liverpool and be a squad player, but the signs are that it won't be more than that. He even admitted himself earlier in the summer that it might be wise for the Reds to sign another player in his position . "I also think it would be better to get a No. 6 midfielder," he said.
Signed on a four-year contract last summer, Endo was more than just a short-term stop-gap for Liverpool when moves for Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia broke down. But equally, he cannot be a long-term fix given he turns 32 in February.
Even if he was simply a rotation player who could offer back-up and play in the domestic cups, that would be pretty much what most people thought he would be when he arrived. That would hardly be a disappointment for a signing who was relatively cheap.
In an ideal world, a transformational defensive midfielder would appear on the market before August 30 and Liverpool would make a move. Even in the likelier event that doesn't happen, however, we've already seen the first hints of how Slot's midfield department might shape up — with Endo seemingly not front nor center.
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