Problem is, he might be a very good CB but would he be better in midfield? I think that is up to Klopp to decide. We saw how Henderson has flourished when played in the right position. He was good but once Klopp shift him further up, he w became a mainstay for us. Would that be the case for Fabinho? I don’t know but I am relieved that he has slotted in so well and testament to our backroom staff and the attitude and aptitude of Fabinho himself
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You know I’ve been on the bandwagon a while. Mind you, there is a point in every midfielders career when I start advocating playing them at centre back.
Look out Curtis, lad.
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He’s played really well there and you can tell the difference when he went off last Wednesday.
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I think one of the abiding hall marks of this team is its versatility. It’s a real throwback to the days before the game was so highly coached and roles so specifically defined. The result is probably as much as 50% of our squad can just be dropped into a role other than what we think of as their primary one and nail it. This is a credit not only to the intelligence of the players but of the attitude Klopp has fostered that the players will do it and do it enthusiastically. Gini is being asked to do yeoman’s work despite going away with holland and being a free scoring attacking mid. Milner came to us so he could play regularly and in his preferred midfield position and has gone back to being the versatile role player he tried to escape from being and yet is enjoying his football more than at any time in his career. I have no doubt that if we found ourselves in a FB crisis we would slot Hendo in there and watch him be the best RB in the league not named Trent.
From that perspective I don’t think a decision will need to be made for Fab. He will continue to be considered as a CB when needed and will demand the other lads play well when fit to get back into the side. But if they get back to fitness and form and there is a need to play him in DM we will. And everything in between.
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I believe Klopp when he said not long ago that Fabinho remains first and foremost a midfielder. I expect us to go back to a normal situation next summer and CB only remains his secondary position if needed.
He’s reliable. Still yet to complete a full season with us without some drops of form (Mane had similar spells in his first 2 season with us)… but there’s no question about him being important for our next couple of years.
He’s tall, but he’s lean and aggressive. Klopp says he’s got that natural defensive instinct in him. Good enough on the ball, that’s also important for the position he plays. Clean in the tackle, though I’d like him to not forget his left foot sometimes in that aspect.
Just a nice story so far. Someone who came out of the blue just a day after Kiev. Maybe wasn’t among the first names among the public’s lips when he was at Monaco (had an interesting evolution there because when I first noticed him, he was playing RB). Took a little/normal while to settle and learn. Now a pretty important player.
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I hope he never goes back to midfield to be honest. He has had spells where he has been absolutely abysmal at DM and his best performances for us have all been at CB.
Fabinho-Van Dijk has everything you could possibly want from a CB pairing. They’re quick, athletic, strong, positionally excellent, can bring the ball out of defence and quality in the air.
In midfield he falls asleep and lets midfield runners breeze by him but he doesn’t do that at CB, because he knows he can’t hand a man over to anyone else.
It’s similar to the Alexander-Arnold question, in my opinion, in that people clamour for Trent to go into midfield despite him being the best RB in the world. Fabinho has now been a CB for a few months and established himself as our best player in that role for now and yet people want him back in midfield where he is inconsistent. Wijnaldum at DM, Fabinho at CB is much stronger.
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He had some weak spells of form, but a lot of his midfield stuff was pretty good, wouldn’t call him inconsistent (that’s more for someone like Chamberlain when he’s available). In the mean time, since the spring of 2019, Hendo proved to Klopp that he can still do a damn good job as an #8. Next season, with us likely losing Gini… I could see a Fabinho, Henderson and Thiago midfield trio. In most games or especially in big games. He does a good job at CB now, not a perfect one… that’s all fine, but I think we’re going back to normal next summer. Maybe there’s an outside chance he gets some games alongside Virgil at RCB and maybe stays there. But for now still, I wouldn’t bet on it.
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For me, it is absolutely vital we get Wijnaldum re-signed. Reality may disagree with me in that the club may not offer him the contract he deserves but Gini and Henderson are far and away our best midfielders.
With Fabinho back in midfield I fear we will be wide open to the counter attack - which is exactly what happened at the end of last season.
I really don’t like the thought of Henderson-Fabinho-Thiago to be perfectly honest.
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I agree that we will have to react somehow. I’d like us to agree a new deal with Gini, but I totally understand both sides’ arguments here. Especially the club’s. Pearce says he thinks we will eye a replacement there.
For me, Henderson is as a combination of player & character our most important midfielder. Gini is similar since the summer od 2018. I wouldn’t say it’s the end of the world if we lose him, but it’s important yeah. Not impossible that Thiago comes in and we manage to keep the same level. It’s just called evolution sometimes. We might still get enough defensive solidity from our midfield overall, Thiago is not an irresponsible player, far from it. I
understand fans are afraid, but sometimes you look back at some examples and you realize that things worked out better than we thought. Even more, we were surprised a lot of times. We’ll see what happens there, be it someone from the current roster or we buy a central midfielder. The end of last season was unusual for our whole team, not only Fabinho. He’s someone who secured our attacks so well in the Barca return game. Our staff still call him the lighthouse of our team.
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I’m not worried about him in big games against teams who try and keep possession. He is excellent at hunting the ball. I worry about him in games against everyone else, the teams that will try and sit deep and counter attack. His desire to win the ball often sees him drawn a long way out of position and the late midfield runner has tonnes of space to run into. It happened a whole bunch of times last season, even before the league was won, and my view is that it was a flaw in his positional sense and vision. One that playing in his best role, CB, covers up.
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Brendan, is that you?
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But we went for it against Barca, par example. Klopp often speaks about securing our attacks. I think he does that pretty well. I’m pretty happy how he’s played in midfield for us so far. We’ll see how this season goes, because we might not go for a new CB in January. Maybe my opinion changes until May. I had the CB position in mind when he first came and was struggling. An option to maybe “save” him if he flopped in midfield. But for now I think Klopp still sees him as a midfielder when football/our roster goes back to normal and I’m fine with it.
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The conventional wisdom is that Fabinho as a ‘6’ makes us more solid but the evidence from the start of 2019/20 says otherwise. For me, it’s quite obvious the opposite has been true over that period. Henderson covers for other players so much better than Fabinho does, he’s more disciplined, more aware of runners around him and quicker across the ground.
Some very rough (and slightly debatable) stats to illustrate that:
In that time period we’ve conceded more than 2 goals in a game with Fabinho on the pitch as a DM at least 11 times. They include 7 at Villa, 4 at City, 3 vs Watford, Salzburg, Chelsea, Leeds. There have been only 6 games in which we’ve kept a clean sheet that he’s started.
Without Fabinho as the DM, we’ve conceded more than 2 just once (Everton) and kept 17 clean sheets.
I’ve tried to discount league cup/u23 teams because they’re not relevant to the discussion. There’s also a couple of games he’s come on as a sub late that we’ve kept a clean sheet in.
That was just a very quick scan of Transfermrkt so might not be 100% accurate but it paints a clear enough picture and backs up what I’ve seen with my own eyes. Our team has evolved a bit since 18/19, a season Fab was great in once he got up to speed, so I’m more inclined to put more stock in what has happened recently.
Our football can change again of course, we can become more compact and less adventurous again which will suit Fab down to the ground, but for now he’s doing pretty great as a centre back. It’s tough to say where he’ll play in the future, he remains a solid option for both positions, but for my money he’s been more consistent as a centre back than as a midfielder so far.
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Maybe with some people!
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If only Lucas was an inch or two taller…
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When the world best CB is injured you try to learn from the worlds second best CB to become the worlds third best CB 
Fabinho on playing CB:
“I was nervous at first but I think I have grown into it. When I first came to Liverpool I identified the areas that I needed to improve and I watched Joel Matip a lot in terms of defending. I have talked and learned from him.”
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Got beat a few times from a corner this season. Although I must see it again, but wasn’t that a foul from Ajayi? I remember he had his hands on Fab. I remember Crouch used to make a lot of stupid fouls like that, being taller than everyone, but still feeling the need to use his arms to climb on players.
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I put a screenshot from YouTube in the match thread. I think it was a foul. The lad climbs all over Fab and clearly prevents him jumping.
As far as I know it isn’t checked. I think if Virgil does that, VAR look at it for ten minutes and find a way to disallow the goal.
The lad who put the cross in looked very tight for offside. Again, as far as I know not checked. Haven’t even seen a reply that would clear it up.
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Yeah, forgot to add that I was really disappointed that it wasn’t even checked (maybe it was, but there wasn’t a pause at all). Was first hoping it was offside - it wasn’t, but then I was a bit shocked that no one from the media mentioned it post-match.