Fabinho is the most regressed player in 2020
Liverpool star midfielder Fabinho is the most regressed player of 2020 after falling away at the turn of the new year.
This thought would have been unbelievable a few months ago. Fabinho was Liverpool’s anchor man – the string that tied it all together and the first name on the teamsheet.
No other player can do what the Brazilian does, when he’s on form. He’s the type of footballer the club was crying out for and a man Jurgen Klopp moved quickly to secure from AS Monaco at the start of the summer transfer window in 2018.
And he started 2019/2020 in similar fashion: Fabinho was vital to the cause and only missed one game before picking up that ankle injury against Napoli – an injury that ruled him out from 27 November until 19 January.
Those weeks seemed to rob the Brazilian of a certain something and he struggled to find a way back to his previous levels. At first it appeared as if they star was just rusty and needed first team minutes to get back to his usual self.
But then things started to look a little more systemic.
To get back to normal life, Klopp gave Fabinho 48 minutes across three Premier League games but eventually ran out of patience with the defensive midfielder and he was dropped for the vital Atletico Madrid second leg fixture.
He was an eternal disappointment to fans since, who questions what had happened to the man who seemed to be everywhere and nowhere since he started to take the Premier League by the scruff of the neck.
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On form, the Brazilian out-muscles opponents, steals the ball, lays off passes, breaks up the lines and protects the defense.
All that went after his comeback from the injury, and in a team as good as Liverpool that’s enough to take you from being a star to most regressed player of 2020.