2018/19 Season Report Card - Fabinho

As with Joel Matip, I’ve chosen to largely ignore the first few months of the season when Fabinho hardly played. Matip didn’t play because initially he was injured, and then he couldn’t get in the team. With Fabinho it was different. He was fit, he just wasn’t selected.

It may have been frustrating for him at the time, but given the way things turned out he will surely understand now why he didn't get a look in for a while. Jurgen played this one absolutely perfectly. Of course it’s easier to leave out a big money new arrival when the team are winning virtually every week, but even so, Klopp was still being grilled about why Fabinho wasn’t playing but he wouldn’t be rushed. 

Fabinho was barely seen for months. He didn’t even make the bench sometimes, despite arriving with a big reputation (not to mention a big price tag) from Monaco. This caused a bit of unnecessary panic from some fans and a lot of bollocks to be written by some sections of the media. There was even speculation of him being sold back to France in the January window.

There was never any chance of that happening. Anyone with any sort of clue knew what was going on. Klopp has simply gone back to the old ways of letting players learn ‘the Liverpool Way’ rather than immediately throw them in to the side. There are exceptions of course, some players go straight in and take off immediately. Others have needed time, and they’ve been given it.

Last season it was Robertson and Oxlade-Chamberlain who needed a few months to pick it up, this year it was Fabinho and Naby Keita, and to a certain extent Xherdan Shaqiri too.

Keita had been expected to hit the ground running due to coming from a system and style at Leipzig that was not unlike Klopp’s, but for Fabinho it was a whole different ball game. He was learning to adapt to a new league, a new country, new team-mates and most crucially, a new style of play which is pretty complex and takes time to learn. 

It’s not like we were desperate and needed to throw him in. We had Henderson and Wijnaldum for the number six role so Klopp had the luxury of taking his time with the Brazilian and spending time on the training ground getting him familiar with what is required.

The first we saw of him was as a last minute substitute against PSG in September. He played 87 minutes of the EFL Cup loss to Chelsea and got 15 minutes off the bench away at Napoli. Another sub appearance came in the win at Huddersfield in late October, and then he started three games on the bounce.

He looked good in the first two, but the pace of the third one (away at Arsenal) seemed too much for him. At this time Klopp was experimenting with different tactical set ups and I felt as though the formation change to 4-2-3-1 was to make things easier for Fabinho (and also Shaqiri) to come in and play their natural game. 

Expecting Fabinho to play the ‘six’ role at that early stage was perhaps unrealistic, and having done well as part of a two against Red Star and Cardiff it was probably no co-incidence that his struggles at the Emirates came when he was left ‘alone’ in a 4-3-3. 

Pep Ljinders later said something about how they felt he was playing too deep and that although he was the best in the world at defending in front of the centre backs, he struggled covering across from side to side. These are the things he needed to learn, and learn them he did. 

As soon as Fabinho got himself comfortable and was able to hold down the fort on his own, he just went from strength to strength. In fact, I could make a decent argument that since January he’s been as dominant and as influential as Virgil Van Dijk. He’s an absolute monster, capable of just taking over the middle of the pitch and bossing things. 

He’s a tackling machine, he reads the game brilliantly and he can pick a pass as well. I look at him and see a mixture of Didi Hamann and Patrick Vieira, with a bit of Javier Mascherano thrown in too. The spine of our team now with Alisson, Van Dijk and Fabinho, is pretty damn intimidating isn’t it?

Imagine being an opposition player lining up next to them in the tunnel. Just big, physical specimens who can all play. They're bigger than you and they're better than you. How do you overcome that? You don;t.

With him on the field we look to have gone up an extra level. Scoring goals against us when we’ve got Alisson, Van Dijk and Fabinho on the pitch is incredibly difficult for anyone. It’s not just the defensive side that makes Fabinho so important though. He just brings a calm to the team. He settles things down. He was even brilliant on a couple of occasions when he needed to play centre back too.

Matip said it best I think: “Fabinho is amazing. You always know you can play the ball to him, even a shit ball, he does not get stressed. When he makes a tackle…his leg seems to get longer and longer, like a gadget.”

Matip also referenced the Barca game at Anfield and how it looked like there were three or four Fabinho’s on the pitch because he was everywhere. It was an incredible display. To play the way he did, despite being on a yellow card for 80 minutes, almost defied belief.

That night Fabinho was like the end of level boss you can’t beat on a video game and by full time both Suarez and Messi had thrown their control pads at the TV in frustration.

We’ve got some cracking options in the middle of the park, but I don’t think I’m wrong is stating that our midfield now is Fabinho plus two others.

Rating 9/10. 

As I said, since January he might have been our best player.

Best Moment:

The second leg against Barca. One of the greatest defensive midfield performances I’ve ever seen, capped by that visceral roar into the face of Suarez.

Worst Moment:

Not being picked by Brazil for the Copa America despite being the best defensive midfielder in Europe in 2019. This is even worse than picking Jesus over Bobby. Are they mental? 

The Future?

I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was Player of the Year next season. I can see him becoming ‘the midfield Van Dijk’ and just completely dominating everyone next year.

I think I should also mention his missus here. Often, particularly with South American players, the wives don’t really settle. Or at least that’s an excuse regularly used when they want to leave (not specifically us here, I’m talking across the board). From day one though Fab’s other half became some kind of Liverpool Superfan. 

She was wearing the shirt on the plane over when he was signing, and she’s never off Twitter posting about the Reds. I’m not saying he’ll stay here forever but one thing I don’t think we need to worry about is his wife pushing for him to move. Hell, she might stay even if he goes.