Once Fabio Carvalho arrived at Hull City this past January, he seemed to turn into a brand new player, one that loved the sport again and his class rose to the occasion.
Carvalho, still only 21, recorded 9 goals and 2 assists in his 20 Championship matches for the Tigers. This was the creative force we had come to know. However, his time at Liverpool has been stunted with stops and starts.
As he was struggling to find game time earlier in the 2023/24 season while on loan at RB Leipzig, there were calls for him to officially be moved on.
The Reds attack has only gotten stronger in recent times with huge names like Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota Luis Diaz, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai all viable contenders for regular minutes.
However, I'm here to say Carvalho still deserves a chance to leave a mark this term for Arne Slot and I'm going to explain why.
His versatility can be an asset
Carvalho can play in a variety of roles across the front line. He has the ability to thrive in a No. 10 role. on the wing and possibly even as a false nine.
He has very good technical ability when on the ball and both feet are dangerous when he is in an advanced role on the pitch. His time at Hull showed he could be the focus of an attack when given the responsibility.
He can still utilize this positional and tactical versatility as a key weapon for Slot in the coming season. With the club playing in a wide variety of competitions there should be not many challenges between him and 20+ appearances.
A super sub role not very dissimilar from the one that Harvey Elliott has played over the last couple of seasons.
That is absolutely a role that that Carvalho can thrive in and with the large group of talent around him, he could definitely have some impactful moments.
He needs to be challenged at the highest level
A unique reason for Liverpool to keep him around this season instead of sending him on loan again could be that he is reaching an age where you want to see a player begin testing himself against the best players in the world.
Were he to go back to the Championship for example, he might put up terrific numbers again but there would still be questions about if he can do it at Anfield.
It would not matter if he scored 30 goals for Hull next season because we need to see him produce half of those numbers at the highest level. If he stays and can't live up to the expected level, then we will have an answer and can move him on with no qualms.
I think he has shown enough as a player for both Liverpool and Hull that he deserves a full chance to really be given a proper go.
Slot and the club could very well be a pleasant surprise.