Arne Slot must bring star with one Premier League start into Liverpool XI tonight | OneFootball

Liverpool face Sunderland in the Premier League tonight. One star must be brought into the team.

Liverpool hope to get back to winning ways tonight as they travel to take on Sunderland in the Premier League. Though, 'back to winning ways' is something we've wanted for months now.

But the Reds just can't find any consistency. Their win over Newcastle United last week was their only Premier League win in 2026 and while it gave them confidence against Manchester City, they were simply outplayed by Pep Guardiola's team.

And for the same old reasons, too. Liverpool were far too easy to play against, with their press failing to trouble City. That's been the case against nearly every Premier League opponent this season.

Beat the first line of that press and there really isn't much behind it. So go long or get past a tackle and you've got a free run at Liverpool's defence.

That simply has to change or Liverpool aren't going to string together results at the rate they desperately need. One way to change that is to actually use one of the club's many forgotten players.

Wataru Endo can help Liverpool

Let's go back to last season. Wataru Endo was not a regular starter for Liverpool, in fact he started just once in the Premier League. Despite that, he did appear 20 times across the season.

It was how Arne Slot used Endo that was particularly notable. He'd throw him on at the end of games when Liverpool typically led and opponents felt they had to go for it.

Endo, the squad's only defensive midfielder, could sit behind the midfield press and sweep up anything that got past it. That made Liverpool secure enough to consistently see out the last periods of matches and seal the points.

It worked. Of Endo's 20 appearances, Liverpool won 16 of them. They won 16 of the 17 he made before May, when the title had officially been won and Slot started rotating his team.

That one non-win was a 2-2 draw at the Emirates, with Endo coming on for stoppage time to see it out.

The point is that Liverpool were more secure with Endo behind the press. That was a tactic Slot used and it worked wonderfully - but it's not happened this season.

For one, Liverpool do not typically face that sudden desperation from teams late on as they're not typically winning late on. Instead, they face a fight-back against the press from the very start.

The solution to that feels like actually starting Endo as a defensive midfielder. Having him sit behind the press and stop teams getting out that way.

It comes with the sacrifice of an attacking player but at this point, making Liverpool difficult to play against and backing the forwards to make it work feels like the sensible move. The team has failed time and time again to make the press work this season. Endo was the 'fix' last season late on in games and he's almost certainly the 'fix' right now, too.