Fabio "FABINHO" TAVARES: 2022/23

I’m no fan of Bolsonaro and hope he is defeated, but people are allowed to vote for who they want.

Rich footballers will often vote in the direction of the lower tax candidate, whether we like that or not. Lots of Liverpool players have been Tories over the years. Some of them have spoken about it and it has been well known, while others of them, I’m sure, have kept it to themselves given the political leaning of most of the local fan base and city.

On the religious stuff, a number of our players are devout Christians or Muslims. For people of an irreligious persuasion it doesn’t compute, but there you have it.

Besides that, looking at the state of England’s PM, it gets more difficult to have a go at other elected world leaders.

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They can vote for whoever they want but equally people are entitled to have an opinion on that.

These footballers work and earn the majority of their money abroad, what significant difference is the tax affairs of Brazil going to have on their wealth? Are they that incredibly greedy? It’s not a given that high earners have to turn into major cunts.

If any of our players came out in support of Liz Truss or Kwarteng I’d be incredibly scathing of them, but they haven’t, so I don’t see the relevance.

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I don’t think there has been much blowback to Alisson or Bobby posting about the various baptisms they have participated in. Again, the issue is not religion per se, but what is being excused in the name of religious values. I’ve lost many a friend over how they think their religion compels them to view homosexuality. I’m not going to give a bunch of millionaires I have never met any more grace over it.

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Think we might be exaggerating with some of those things or expecting too much.

I bet most of them (especially foreign players) either don’t know or don’t care about what is the main political view in Liverpool or wherever. I also don’t think most people in general class LFC as a “left wing club”. What is that even. Our fans? Yeah.

And if they do know, it’s probably very, very low on their list of priorities.

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At this point I think Fabinho is the first team player I’d be willing to sacrifice (if such a thing is required) for us to move on with other business. Just way too slow in that DM position for me. It’s always been a problem, as has his sporadic form, but I think we should be targeting young and energetic midfielders with more power and pace. Fabinho will be the odd one out in my books.

Having said that I’m not sure what we could actually fetch for him on the open market.

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Agree with that. He’s always been somewhat overrated by our fans but now his deficiencies are really starting to show and he’s only 28.

For me, an elite defensive midfielder should be winning the plaudits when our team is so stretched and out of shape. He’s fine defensively when the whole team is compact and organised, but all at sea when we’re not.

Mascherano spoiled us a bit with defensive midfielders, he’d be putting out a lot of these fires.

Fabinho is a decent player, but very much reliant on those around him. Without 3 or 4 extremely athletic centre backs and midfielders surrounding him he becomes a liability. If he was as good on the ball as Rodri then that would be a trade off worth making, but he isn’t.

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Some of yous are actually funny.

Pace aside (which he’s never had) he’s an exemplary defensive midfielder & still 1 of the very best in the world.

Both the games we’ve lost in the league came when he didn’t start…At Utd he came on when we were already 2 down and at Arsenal he came on when we already conceded 2 comical goals.

The problem with our midfield is that none of them can run, Fab is left alone in front of the back 4 with Trent, Thiago/Harvey and Hendo all caught well up the field (doing nothing) and then it becomes an unfair advantage.

No, it’s just a different opinion. If he was one of the best defensive midfielders in the world then Klopp wouldn’t be dropping him from the world’s most dysfunctional midfield.

Both Sweeting and I have been saying this for years, even when things were going well. Fabinho is a good player, but this insistance that he is absolutely the best in the world has always been tremendously delusional. None of our midfield 3 between 18-20 were best players in the world, they just worked brilliantly as a unit and all made each other look better.

Mascherano under Klopp would have been thing of beauty. Would love to have some of his bite in our midfield right now.

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Not sure Mascherano would’ve played the single pivot role under Klopp. But anyway, back to topic. First things first, I wouldn’t get rid of any of our main 3 CM’s. Get our shit together as much as we can, next summer add a midfielder or two. If it means less room for someone like Jones (I’m simply not sure we’ll be able to bring 1-2 midfielders and still find enough room and time for all our young talents), well, it’s just life at a top club, I’m sorry.

Was he dropping him though? Came straight back into the fold after he was “dropped” v Utd wasn’t he? & now we’ll see if he remains on the bench after Arsenal (he won’t).

& Yes he is 1 of the best.

Him, Rodri, Kante, Casemiro & Verratti have been the top 5 in the world for the last 4-5 years (In Casemiro’s case a bit longer). This isn’t really up for debate.

I’d include Brozovic in that company of some of the best holding/defensive midfielders in last years. Players who play either as the single pivot or deepest in a double pivot. Verratti is more of a Thiago position, playmaker.

I don’t think Klopp would have preferred such a pure DM.

You know what’s funny? You blaming the rest of the midfielders for not being able to run leaving him exposed. As if he can run. DMs are the ones supposed to cover the more attacking players not the other way around.

Fabinho is 28, he should be in his prime and he’s slower than ever. Milner covers more ground than him and he’s almost 10 years his senior. Every player that runs at Fabinho with any pace either makes him fall down after trying a slow as molasses tackle or best case scenario he gets fouled. Add to that some idiotic decisions that have directly resulted in goals and you can see why it’s him that Klopp dropped and not Henderson as you would like.

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A lighthouse whose bulb has gone!

RA, I’ve said the problem is none of them can run…what doesn’t help is Hendo playing sooooo high up the pitch, he doesn’t contribute anything offensively so why he’s that high up raises eyebrows in the first place.

It’s impossible for Fab to cover the whole width of the pitch in front of the back 4 & the players know he’s fucking slow yet still leave him exposed.

We need to start being able to defend old fashion way, compactly 2 banks of 4 leaving no space either behind us or down the flanks.

Just to be clear I’m not saying Fabinho is a bad player, but I don’t believe he has ever been a perfect fit for the way we play and when he drops a few percent below his top level he becomes a liability. The amount of times I see midfield runners able to get past him and into goal scoring areas is not good enough.

We need a player in the defensive midfield area who can cover lots of ground quickly. A Kante style (though not actually Kante because his legs have gone) midfielder fits the bill.

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Hence the huge effort and fee offered to bring in Tchouameni in the summer… Losing out on this guy seems to have hurt us more than we first thought

Yeah but that type of player wouldn’t replace/compete with Fabinho’s position/role. A new player like that would enable us to put Fabinho and Henderson more into competition one against each other. When Fabinho is not in form, Hendo could play more as the #6. When Hendo isn’t fit, Fabinho would come in. Of course, they could still both play a lot of the time.

I think we have different opinions on what Fabinho does.