Fabio "FABINHO" TAVARES: 2022/23

This is just a silly notion if you want to be successful. Some of our greatest managers knew the key to staying on top was selling players just before they started to decline.

1 Like

True.

But do you think Klopp will push him out?

I honestly donā€™t know. My view is this season has pushed Klopp into a fair bit of soul searching and heā€™s had to reflect on loyalty vs success for the first time in his career.

The fact he has dropped Fabinho and Henderson appears to say to me a few lines have been crossed and heā€™s lost patience with some players.

We shall see.

3 Likes

There is loads to unpack here, but it isnā€™t silly at all.

Player have been sold the idea of playing for LFC on the basis that it is a great place to work, itā€™s a great set of lads to work with, and Klopp is a great manager to work with. His ethos has always been ā€˜if you are here and you work hard, I will use youā€™. We canā€™t expect him to turn into Mourinho when there is a lad that weā€™d rather see leave. Klopp isnā€™t going to freeze anyone out, banish anyone to the reserves, or tell anyone to stay away from the training ground. It isnā€™t his nature, but it also totally undermines why we are telling players they will have a great time at LFC. If a player doesnā€™t want to leave, Klopp is not going to force them out.

And on selling before the decline. It worked for Bob, because this was in a pre-data and stats age. I could go on the internet now and find more information on a player than any scout in the seventies and eighties had.

You canā€™t do that anymore. If LFC has the information to suggest Fab is starting to decline, then so does everyone else in football.

What you would have to do is sell well ahead of the decline and accept that other clubs will get a couple of good years out of a player, like Teal have done with Casemiro. Weā€™d be looking at selling lads at 28/29 years of age.

Now can imagine if weā€™d sold Fab in summer 2021? If Mo had gone two years ago. Can you imagine the #Fsgout fume about that?

2 Likes

Klopp is not god, nobody is. Everyone makes mistakes, some more, some less.

Clubs always, together with managers and Klopp himself, sell some players who have years on their contract.

Also, itā€™s not all in the clubā€™s control who gets sold and when. We can parade on the streets shouting ā€œOx is for saleā€ all we want. Means nothing if nobody is interested enough and we have to wait more towards the end or literally the end of his contract.

And of course we always need to evaluate how much it makes sense to get rid at all costs. Itā€™s maybe boring and frustrating for fans to hear, but weā€™re most probably not selling a Keita for Ā£5m 6/12 months before his deal ends. We see certain value in him staying here until the end of this deal, if there are no offers we judge worth and he doesnā€™t want to go either.

Really nothing unusual if, par example Fabinho (or anyone else), gets told this summer that we have other plans and it may be good for him (together with us) to see if there are interested clubs that would meet our valuation, more or less.

Itā€™s football and if itā€™s done in a professional and minimum respectful way, thereā€™s nothing wrong.

2 Likes

Bit of a scathing attack on Fab in Kloppā€™s press today at the end thereā€¦I guess a lot of it is justified but didnā€™t expect him to come out and be so open about it.

Why donā€™t you paraphrase for those of us who have not seen it.

Klopp has dropped Fabinho for an 18 year old, the longer that continues this season the more chance there is of Fabinho leaving. Heā€™s loyal but clearly not blind, if he had continued using Fabinho that would have been worse.

There are lots of leagues where the football is far less intense - Lucas got another 5 years at a good level in Italy. So the whole data science point doesnā€™t really change anything, Fabinho has lots of experience and with less demands on him would be a good player.

Fundementally if Klopp wants to be a manager competing at the very top he canā€™t have sentiment, he canā€™t have 12 months for Fabinho to play himself back into form. Heā€™s already had 6 months, how much more time do you give him till you say fuck me this guy is costing me points.

Also you are talking about Fabinho in isolation of the entire midfield, no you donā€™t sell him in the summer 2022 (not sure why you mention 21? He had a good 22 season for the most part)ā€¦ What you donā€™t do is keep Keita, Oxlade, Milner, Henderson and Fabinho in the summer just gone. Thatā€™s a collective failure in keeping the engine room fresh and up to the demands of the team.

1 Like

Minute 16

Personally I wouldnā€™t call it scathing

3 Likes

There are a couple of arguments that have taken on popular acceptance to explain our recent success that I think often taken stretched to extreme lengths. This is one of them. The most fundamental thing that makes this an attractive environment for players is the prospect of winning. Keeping player in important roles they can no longer fulfil is a short sighted way of keeping the group happy, and we shouldnā€™t pretend that the only way to prevent that happening is a Jose style burning of bridges.

5 Likes

I agree with that. You can, and should, be loyal in the workplace. Back your team to succeed. Back them to overcome difficulties and obstacles, which are par for the course in any workplace.

But there does come a time when if someoneā€™s performance level is not what it should be - and it is on person in the hot seat to judge whether or not it is a blip or something more, then a parting of the ways comes into view.

It doesnā€™t mean you have to be a Mourinho-style jerk about it.

2 Likes

Ox and Keita are still here because theyā€™re the football equivalent of buying a used car thatā€™s a lemon, and no warranty. youā€™re kinda stuck with it.

both on high salaries compared to 99% of the rest of the worldā€™s football clubs, and spend more time on the treatment table than on the pitch. not their fault, it happens. that tackle that fucked Oxā€™s knee (CL game, against Kolarov) was pretty much innocent but it affected the rest of his career.

Although football is probably the only workplace where loyalty is rewarded. I made my company millions of dollars in savings this year, won manager of the month twice in the space of eight months and got a 100% ENPS score from my team members in my annual review.

Still got made redundant the moment company felt like they needed to make some cut backs. No such thing as loyalty in business. And Iā€™m way better at my job than Fabinho is at his :joy:

2 Likes

I know exactly what youā€™re talking about. I was on holidays in UK in 2019 when I got a call from home, industry associate Iā€™d known for a long time wanted me to fix his operations. took me a little over 10months to get it running smooth. 11th month, they told me I was no longer required, but hereā€™s an offer of a ā€œsimilarā€ position thatā€™s come available at 2/3 the salary.

Likeā€¦:fu:

2 Likes

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/3-r1dVr4bf4

This, I was surprised he did it. That Brighton game hurt him a lot.

Last few games he keeps mentioning about midfielders not putting in tackles except Thiago.

Bajectic has been booked twice :wink:

And I donā€™t want to see Fabinho attempt a tackle again after last week.

He will not be able to get near a wolves player to tackle them. :woozy_face:

Hopefully he wonā€™t be on the pitch after what Iā€™ve seen recently.

2 Likes