Liverpool midfielder Fabinho is set for a big few weeks at Anfield.
Injuries to both Jordan Henderson and Naby Keita are likely to give the Brazilian, who has had to be very patient so far this season, the game time he has been craving since arriving in the Premier League.
In late May, just days after their heartbreaking Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid, reports started to emerge in France that suggested Fabinho was a target for Liverpool. Hours later, a £40m deal was completed.
The new Mascherano – or Liverpool’s answer to Sergio Busquets?
Having established himself as one of the most sought-after No.6-type midfielders in Europe, the former Fluminense and Rio Ave man, who turned 25 on Tuesday, is precisely the sort of player many felt Liverpool had been lacking since the departure of Javier Mascherano in 2010.
Fabinho played often at right-back in the early stages of his career, which included an under-the-radar stint at Real Madrid. It was his previous manager Jardim that decided he had the qualities to influence games from midfield for Monaco as they broke Paris Saint-Germain’s stranglehold on the Ligue 1 title in 2016/17.
There, he excelled alongside Tiemoue Bakayoko, allowing the Frenchman to push forward in the knowledge he had good cover behind him. Another former teammate, Bernardo Silva, now of Manchester City, was full of praise for him earlier this year when asked which of his former Monaco teammates he’d like to see with him at the Etihad Stadium, “The normal choice is [Kylian] Mbappe. In the coming years, he can become one of the best in the world.
“But I can’t decide between him and Fabinho. Fabinho still has 10 years ahead of him and I really enjoyed playing with him. He’s very intelligent, he’s a very good person and a fantastic player.”
Then there was PSG boss Thomas Tuchel, who name-checked Fabinho as one of the most naturally talented holding midfield players in Europe.
“A player who sacrifices himself willingly is really important,” Tuchel said when explaining the qualities of the ideal No. 6 in the PSG team. We see that with players like Casemiro, Fabinho, N’Golo Kante and Sergio Busquets, this is what sets this position apart.”
“He needs time to adapt… just like Gundogan”
So why has a player likened to Barcelona’s peerless midfield conductor, Sergio Busquets, not walked straight into the Liverpool line-up? So far, the Brazilian has made just one competitive start for the Reds, which came in their Carabao Cup defeat to Chelsea in September.
Well, the additions of both Virgil van Dijk and Alisson have been huge for this Liverpool team, from a defensive perspective. They have gone from being one of the most defensively vulnerable teams in the Premier League to one of the most solid; no team in the division has conceded fewer times this season. What is more, Klopp made no secret of the fact Fabinho would be given time to adapt in pre-season, where he cited playing-style differences between Liverpool and the Brazilian’s former Monaco team as a factor.
“He is more a rather reserved person – looking, watching, absorbing, and it always takes a little bit more time. But on the pitch, he is back now and that’s good,” Klopp recently added.
“Nothing [is wrong]. The team is good. He needs time to adapt,” Klopp said in September.
And Fabinho’s situation under Klopp is not without precedent. Last season, both Andy Robertson and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were made to wait for their chances to impress. Klopp has even compared Fabinho’s situation to Ilkay Gundogan’s when he first joined Borussia Dortmund: “I’ve no problems, honestly. Go back a year and Andy Robertson – he played what one or two games by this stage, but not too good. And then he became the player he is now.
“You come into my team, mostly it needs a bit of time. Ilkay Gundogan needed more or less half a year without being in the squad. After that he played pretty much each game – that’s how things go.”
“You only have to watch YouTube videos of Fabinho”
Whether Fabinho will need six months is uncertain. What is clear, considering the recent fitness issues of Keita and Henderson, is that Liverpool need a midfielder with Fabinho’s combined talents in tackling and recycling possession.
What is also clear is that Klopp knows Fabinho is a player that has a lot of strings to his bow and is someone that can take his midfield to another level once he has settled.
“You only have to watch a few YouTube videos of him. It’s not important what summary of a Monaco season you watch because he was good in all of them!” the German said.
“He has all the qualities. Hard challenges, good offensively, defensively quick, good shooter, fantastic set-pieces, good header, all these things. He’s good strategically too in the right moment.”
We saw how swapping Robertson in for Alberto Moreno last raised Liverpool’s level in defence. It is unlikely £40m would be invested in a transfer unless the transfer committee at Anfield saw reason to believe their substantial investment would yield results, and so one can only assume Fabinho’s introduction is expected to deliver a Robertson-esque impact in the middle of the pitch. The next few weeks could represent the first true test that decision.
The post Jurgen Klopp’s Fabinho plan could take Liverpool up a level appeared first on Squawka News.
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