Liverpool April Fools: Top 3 foolish mistakes they made in 2020

Fabinho being able to keep playing while injured against Napoli

One of our most important players is Fabinho. He’s a unique footballer in terms of the qualities he brings to the Liverpool squad. There are no other stars like him around the Anfield squad, and he does what nobody else can do.

That’s why, once Klopp begun to trust him, the Brazilian became indispensable to the cause. In 29 Premier League games for 2018/2019, the defensive midfielder missed just two of them. It took until round nine before the former Monaco star was handed a place in the league side, but after that he hasn’t been out of it.

Before his injury, Fabinho played 1,054 out of 1,170 minutes in the top flight. He was that important.

And it makes what Liverpool did against Napoli in the Champions League so curious. It was clear that when he went down, things weren’t looking good. But Klopp and the medical team let the Brazilian play on and he ended up seriously injuring his ankle and missed the next 13 games in all competitions.

But that wasn’t the end of that. He hasn’t been back to his pre-injury levels and that has cost Liverpool points and possible progression to the next round of the Champions League. That one decision cost us the use of a key player, but it also cost us that key player’s finest attributes once he’d returned to fitness.