He is yet to make his competitive debut for Liverpool
When Fabinho signed for Liverpool for a fee of €50m, it was presumed that he would slot straight into Liverpool’s midfield. The issue of how Klopp would fit him into the same team as club captain Jordan Henderson was raised, but generally speaking, clubs do not sign a player for such a fee if he is not in the first team plans.
Yet, the Brazilian has not yet made an appearance for the Reds in the Premier League. Liverpool fans cannot have too many complaints about his absence, considering the fact that they’ve won their first six games of the season. But many are still slightly bemused by his lack of game time, especially after he was completely absent from their Champions League tie against Paris Saint-Germain, whom Fabinho will know well from his time at Monaco.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has addressed the issue, suggesting that it may take several months before Fabinho fully adapts to Liverpool’s style of play.
“Three or five weeks sound like a long time in football, but to improve something you can give half a year, to really make the next step. That’s it,” Klopp said.
Liverpool’s style of football is very intense, with patterns of play with and without the ball ingrained into the player’s brains to the point of it becoming muscle memory. It makes sense not to throw a new signing in the deep end without the necessary preparation, especially given their strength in depth.
Klopp acted similarly with Andrew Robertson, waiting for him to get to grips with their system before he nailed down the starting spot at left-back.
“It’s not different between him and other players,” Klopp said.
“It’s really not complicated, he just needs to get used to it. It’s about positioning, it’s about reaction, about spaces defensively, closing them, offensively using them.
“It’s a football team with a specific way of playing. It needs time, and they were all used to other football teams. So you have natural runs in a team.
“Like, let me say, a very famous movement here was Phil Coutinho. Half left, inside, nice shot! For this one, you needed somebody to overlap and make it difficult to defend, so that one defender at least is busy. Things like that explain it. It’s completely normal.
“There’s no time to say ‘I give you that, or that’, but it will happen. Because the game is so quick and intense, it needs to get natural. It’s not about changing these players, we want their football personality. They are here because of what they did.”
