'Lucky' Liverpool's cut-price midfield rebuild has put Chelsea's £280m splurge to shame

Even then, Wataru Endo was 30 years of age and coming from struggling Stuttgart. It felt like a stop-gap solution, and smacked of desperation. A significant number of supporters were seriously underwhelmed - and Klopp knew it.

"I know how football fans are," the manager said at the time, "they would prefer to bring in a player who is £110 million. But have a look, have a look, because he's a really good player. Experienced player, captain of Stuttgart, captain of Japan, speaks good English, nice guy, family man, machine on the pitch, good footballer and, on top of that, sensational attitude.

"He is obviously a top fit and we will have a lot of fun with him. I'm really sure he can help us immediately, which is super-cool because the season has already started."

As it transpired, though, the late arrival at Anfield almost inevitably hindered Endo early on.

Few players immediately get to grips with Klopp's footballing philosophy, particularly defensive midfielders, given the manager asks so much of his No.6s. Fabinho, lest anyone forget, struggled horribly in the holding role for months before eventually becoming arguably the most important player in Klopp's first great Liverpool team.

Klopp also subsequently acknowledged that he probably increased the difficulty of Endo's adaptation by throwing him in at the deep end, with the £16m ($20m) signing's first two appearances coming in games that saw the Reds reduced to 10 men, against Bournemouth and Newcastle.

Klopp also admitted that he hardly helped matters by clumsily suggesting that Endo being a "very calm and very polite" character had held him back a little.

"I was not too happy with how I described the situation [with his previous comments on Endo]. I am not a native speaker," the German pointed out. "But if we don't give people time anymore, what world is this? Endo is a top player." He's certainly proven that over the past three months.

Endo saw just 32 minutes of game time across September and October, but he had become so influential by the time the Asian Cup rolled around in January that Klopp was jokingly hoping that Japan would get knocked out in the group stage so he could have him back as quickly as possible.

"I told him, 'if I wish you look, it would be a lie!'" the Reds boss said laughing, before later adding, "It’s a bit of a shame how he found his feet and now he goes to the Asian Cup, but that's how it is. And besides, what a kid and what a player!"

Klopp could be forgiven for feeling frustrated. Endo had become an essential part of a table-topping squad competing on four fronts. After coming off the bench to score a crucial late leveller in the 4-3 win over Fulham, he had started six games in a row before departing for Qatar.

Upon his return, he went straight back into the line-up for the recent wins over Burnley, Brentford and Luton Town, leaving Klopp unsurprisingly keen to stick it to those who had been quick to write off Endo.

“We don’t give people time anymore," he lamented. "Internally, we do, but because we talk [to the media] every three days – or more often – about these kind of things, it feels like after four weeks, we're already speaking about when it will finally click.

"But you need a bit of time, that’s all. We see him every day in training and he is one of the hardest-working people I ever met. It was always clear that it will be good, but I'm happy obviously for him that the public can see it now too.

"He gives something different to the team, that’s clear. We don’t have 20 players on the pitch who have tackling as a hobby. But (Endo) is doing it for us. On top of that, his passing is really good, his awareness is really good, and his positioning when we have possession is much better."

Endo's improvement has come with an added benefit, in that it has allowed Klopp to move Mac Allister into a more advanced midfielder position for Liverpool's last two games - the merits of which were obvious as the 25-year-old broke into the box to score the second goal in Saturday's 4-1 win at Brentford.

Even though Klopp has never understood the fuss because Mac Allister is such an intelligent, multi-talented midfielder, the use of the £35m ($44m) man as a No.6 has been a heated topic of debate since Liverpool's first game of the season against Chelsea.

The Argentine acquitted himself reasonably well at Stamford Bridge, playing a part in Luis Diaz's opening goal, but the Blues undeniably dominated the midfield battle.

Mac Allister responded to that uncertain start wonderfully well, though, turning in a string of hugely influential displays in front of the back four, and by the time Liverpool met Chelsea again in the Premier League last month, Klopp was already hailing the World Cup winner as one of the best defensive midfielders in the league.

"I know he didn't play the simple six role at Brighton, but he's an incredibly smart player," he enthused, "and as long as you can create a compact formation, he is an outstanding six. You can all tell me what you want, but he is an outstanding six on the ball, better than all sixes you can imagine, and against the ball, he's just really strong."

It was certainly startling to see the way in which he completely bossed Caicedo at Anfield last month, with the struggling Ecuadorian hauled off after 66 miserable minutes. After all, Mac Allister doesn't even consider defensive midfield his best position, and yet he has performed the role this season far better than the specialist six signed for £115m ($145m).

When one considers that Endo has too, it's easy to understand why Klopp feels it was actually a blessing in disguise missing out on Caicedo and Lavia - who was bought from Southampton for £60m ($75m) but has been restricted to just 32 minutes of action this season because of injury.

"We obviously realised that other central defensive midfielders don't want to join Liverpool!" he quipped in December, "But then you see what happens: we found Endo, an exceptional player."

As a result, nobody's laughing at Liverpool ahead of Sunday's Carabao Cup final against Chelsea, given the form of Mac Allister and Endo is making a mockery of the colossal amount money their rivals spent on not just Caicedo and Lavia, but also £107m ($135m) signing Enzo Fernandez in a desperate attempt to overhaul their own midfield.

The Blues may have won last summer's transfer tug-of-war, but losers have never proven quite so lucky.