Fabinho relished the opportunity to playing in his natural position as the Brazilian produced a starring performance in Liverpool’s 2-0 win against RB Leipzig on Wednesday evening.
The Brazilian has been adaptable and admirable during this campaign as he has had to fill in at centre-back during a catalogue of absentees from the defensive position.
Fabinho has only played four games in midfield all season with his last coming on the 17th of October against Everton.
Speaking after the game to the Official site as the Reds advanced to the quarterfinals of the Champions League after a 4-0 win on aggregate, Fabinho was thrilled to be back in natural surroundings as well as the team performance in general.
“Yes, I missed it a little bit playing the midfield position.
“In general our quality was very good tonight, the communication from our two centre-halves, the pressing from the offensive players was working very good. Everyone was good, everyone enjoyed it, everyone pressed and we did the hard work.”
“It was a great evening. We played against a really good team. We knew we had the advantage [from the first leg] and we played a really intelligent game, we had a lot of chances in the first half.
"We didn’t score but we felt if we kept playing the same way we would score. We scored two goals and in general it was a very good, positive performance and very good for our confidence.”
In the midst of a long losing home streak and generally inconsistent form in the league, the opportunity to leave the country and play in a elite knock-out competition would have felt like a breath of fresh air and embraced by the managers and players alike.
“We just wanted to win this game. We knew we have opportunities to keep playing in this competition, this is a very nice competition so we know how good it is to play in this competition, to win the competition, we want to keep playing so we played really good football tonight. I hope this will help for our confidence as well.
Jurgen Klopp was equally thrilled to have one of his key players doing what he does best.
“It was my hope before the season [Fabinho playing in midfield] and during the season it didn't happen, so we have to see what solutions we can find for the next games – for Wolves first and foremost.
"Of course, No.6 is his position, one of the best in the world in that position, it's clear. It was not only defending-wise really good from him, he played some good stuff as well. [He is] important for us."
The manager was also incredibly proud of the performance by Nat Phillips who continued to be highly dependable when called upon.
“Oh my God. What a boy he is, what player he is, what a night it is for him. That's absolutely great.
"The concentration level he shows now week, in week out since he is playing for us is absolutely incredible
.
"He is doing exactly the right things at the right moment. In the air he is a monster and you could see today football-wise he is not bad. I couldn't be happier for somebody more than I am for Nat at this moment.
"Not a lot of people get the honour to play a Champions League game and he has that now and he played a really good one and he won it and qualified for the last eight. That is really special."
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