Seven seconds shows why Liverpool can’t put Fabinho in defence
Seven seconds against Wolves showed why Liverpool can’t afford to put Fabinho back in defence for the next game.
Jurgen Klopp named an unchanged side on Monday night, which gave Nat Phillips and Ozan Kabak the chance to build their relationship.
Kabak played well and enhanced his chances of making his loan move permanent in the summer, but only part of that is down to his partnership with Phillips or an improvement in form.
Liverpool need Fabinho in midfield
Klopp picked Fabinho as a defensive midfielder, which is his natural position, and the Reds looked a lot more comfortable as a result.
One seven-second clip, shared by the club on their Twitter profile, proves why the Brazilian is so important to the side playing further up the field.
There’s a reason why Fabinho is called the Lighthouse, because he keeps Liverpool out of trouble in stormy times. Fab has also been given another name, Dyson, because he hoovers up everything in his path.
https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1371782838526349314
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That means there’s less pressure on Klopp’s inexperienced centre-back partnership of Kabak and Phillips. None of those men has played a lot of Premier League football, Phillips has 10 top-flight appearances, Kabak five, and having a defensive midfielder like Fabinho in front of them is a massive help.
Fabinho offers Liverpool so much protection
Fab does the intercepting, he makes little tactical fouls, he makes vital tackles and he screens that back four incredibly well. Liverpool loses all of that when Klopp picks the Brazilian at the back, while it also means the Reds’ midfield is forced to play more conservatively.
The good news is that it appears as if Klopp has become more comfortable with the idea of starting Phillips and Kabak at the back together, which means Fabinho’s future appears to lay in his natural space.
And if it does, there’ll be more of those seven-second clips doing the rounds on Twitter.