Liverpool’s Cup Win Highlights Frimpong and Endo Futures

Liverpool are through, but not everyone came out of Anfield on Tuesday night with their prospects intact.

Andoni Iraola’s heavily-rotated side beat Tottenham Hotspur to reach the fourth round of the EFL Cup, the Spaniard making 10 changes from the team that drew with Fulham at the weekend. On paper, it was the classic cup tie for experimentation: fringe players, academy prospects, reputations on the line.

Some seized the chance. Others watched it pass them by.

Frimpong Exposed on a Big Night

Trey Nyoni, James McConnell and Lewis Koumas all earned rare starts, the kind of selection that tells a young player the staff are paying attention. Jeremie Frimpong also came in at right-back, a role tailor-made for an Iraola full-back: aggressive, high, front-foot.

He never got going.

Iraola wants his full-backs to drive games. The Netherlands international barely nudged this one. Going forward, he offered little incision or imagination. Without the ball, he looked exactly like what Spurs had clearly decided he was: a weak point to be attacked.

Time and again, Tottenham worked his side. Mathys Tel drifted into the channel. Mohammed Kudus picked him out. Omar Marmoush isolated him. Across the 90 minutes, Frimpong struggled to contain any of them with real authority, and the pattern became hard to ignore.

This is not an isolated off night. Since his £30m move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2025, Frimpong has yet to convince in a red shirt. The fanbase has not been shy about it either; criticism has followed him across this season and the last, his performances too often loose, his impact too often minimal.

Right now, the hierarchy at right-back looks brutally clear. Ronald Araujo is Iraola’s first choice. Conor Bradley is on his way back from injury and expected to return to the fold soon. Frimpong is fighting from behind, and not with much momentum.

For a club that once built so much of its identity around Trent Alexander-Arnold’s influence from that flank, the drop-off is stark. Liverpool still haven’t found anyone who can replicate the control and creativity the former vice-captain offered before his move to Real Madrid. If Frimpong was signed as part of that solution, he has yet to show it.

Inside the club, he is already viewed as one of the weaker links in the squad. For a £30m signing at a club with Liverpool’s ambitions, that is a damning label. It also points to an uncomfortable conclusion: unless his level spikes quickly, Liverpool may need to dip back into the market for a new first-choice right-back.

On a night meant to change perceptions, Frimpong only reinforced them.

Endo Left Watching as the Message Gets Louder

If Frimpong at least had 90 minutes to argue his case, Wataru Endo didn’t even get that.

This was the type of game that should have belonged to him. Ten changes. A home tie. A competition where senior squad players on the fringes usually get a start or, at worst, half an hour from the bench.

Instead, the 33-year-old never left his seat.

Endo had already been left out of Liverpool’s 25-man Champions League squad last week, alongside Federico Chiesa, with youngsters McConnell and Nyoni both named ahead of him. That decision raised eyebrows. Tuesday night explained it.

With Iraola ripping up his weekend XI, with Endo still waiting for his first Premier League minute of the season, this felt like the obvious moment to reintroduce the £16m midfielder. He can anchor a midfield. He has shown he can fill in at centre-back, impressing in that role against Como in pre-season.

He did neither. He didn’t even warm up with purpose.

Iraola instead trusted 22-year-old McConnell and 19-year-old Nyoni from the start, even though Ryan Gravenberch and Dominik Szoboszlai only began the game on the bench. The manager’s words in recent days suddenly rang louder.

“The problem is, in front of him in his position, I have a lot of players,” Iraola said, outlining the logjam in midfield. He listed Trey Nyoni, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister, Dominik Szoboszlai – the players he is currently selecting.

He added: “Wata is definitely a player that I like and for sure he will have his moments.”

The reality on Tuesday cut through the diplomatic tone. If Endo cannot get on the pitch in a game featuring 10 changes, with academy players starting and senior stars rested, when exactly will those “moments” arrive?

His contract runs out at the end of the season. With younger options climbing above him in the pecking order and his Champions League omission already on record, the direction of travel looks obvious. Liverpool have one last realistic window in January to recoup a fee, and the logic of a parting grows stronger with every unused substitute appearance.

Iraola clearly does not see him as part of the core rotation. Endo is too experienced to spend a year watching teenagers take his minutes. Liverpool are too ruthless a club, in this era, to carry a 33-year-old squad player they do not fully trust.

The best outcome, for everyone, now seems to be an exit in a few months’ time.

Liverpool’s cup run moves on. For Frimpong and Endo, nights like this do not just shape a season; they decide whether there is a future for them at Anfield at all.