Klopp: Lack of playing time for Carvalho is not of his own making 

Fabio Carvalho has done nothing wrong to constitute his current lack of minutes in the senior team and it comes down to selecting the right type of squad for each fixture.

The talented 20 year-old utility player signed from Fulham last summer was used regularly in the early stages of this campaign, scoring the famous injury-time winner against Newcastle who suffered the ultimate penalty for their time wasting exploits.

But as time has passed, Carvalho has seen his minutes dwindle to such a extent that currently he is not even making the substitutes bench.

Since the resumption of the season after the World Cup, Carvalho has only made two starts both coming in domestic cup games against Man City and Wolves.

His last start in the league came in Liverpool’s dismal 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in late October and since that point, he has played a grand total of three minutes which came against Southampton while also being a unused substitute on a couple of occasions.

With no injury listed, it led some to think that there had been some sort of falling out between the player and manager or that Klopp felt that the youngster needed to work on his game away from the public gaze.

The manager was asked about this matter in the Newcastle pre-match press conference and looked to quell any such talk as the Echo reported.

“Fabio is a very young player and a big talent.

"He has played well for us in a couple of games. Now the situation is we have to make a squad and he couldn't make the last one. That's how it is.

“He hasn't played too often because from my point of view we needed different skills when we started or when we changed during the games. That's pretty much all.

“He did nothing wrong. He has improved a lot and developed a lot. He is a good kid and is in the middle of the group and the team and that's all fine.”

Naturally this is a predicament that any player would not want to be in, let alone someone who is new to the club and wants to make a lasting impression.

And while it is a great sign that a player has a competitive edge, you have to channel the frustration in the right way and not let it effect the squad.

Pleasingly in this situation, it seems like Carvalho is staying highly professional as Klopp noted.

“Obviously, he's not in a happy place at the moment. You cannot see that on the pitch or when I see him. It's not really obvious, but I can imagine because he's a footballer he wants to play, and he didn't play often enough.

“That cannot help a lot but that's another thing in a long career that you have to go through. For me it looks in the moment that he takes it as good as is possible."