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PPerhaps there is something in the overactive mind that causes it to overlook the most obvious solutions, even when they are staring you in the face. Far from us, of course, to tell Jürgen Klopp how best to do his job. But when Liverpool winced and finally made their way to the knockout stages of the Champions League, it was at least possible to wonder, in a lazy way, if their path to salvation was a little more elemental than we all thought. . To adapt Mahatma Gandhi’s famous retort on Western civilization: what do we think of Fabinho in midfield?
I think it may be a very good idea.
Playing one of the best national team midfielders in the world as a national team midfielder – awesome! And yet, for Liverpool in this sad and frustrated season, things have rarely been so simple. The injuries have bitten down hard. The emotional work of winning the league in front of no fans led to an inevitable downfall. Defeats and self-doubt have twisted Klopp’s purring machine into a clumsy exercise in experimental anguish. And so, for the first time since October, after shaking off the blows and being released from his defensive barracks, Fabinho was left loose at the base of midfield, and almost immediately Liverpool felt like a more functional team as a result.
Much of the post-match reaction focused on Leipzig’s apparent lack of initiative, the surprising passivity of a team based on lightning moves and a thunderous run, and a team that needed two goals to kick off.
The truth was, Leipzig went to great lengths to create and creak, only to run again and again towards Fabinho’s bony hips and outstretched fingers – a midfielder whose top reading of the game can occasionally offer the illusion of clairvoyance, a standing man. in a vending machine with an endless supply of coins.
For Liverpool fans, the exciting journey began an hour before kickoff, with the teams’ announcement – confirmation of Fabinho’s restoration to the throne. The problem was not that Fabinho had done poorly on defense. He was fine. But moving it to the bottom line, even as a temporary hedge, had two effects. In the first place, it was not his natural position and therefore, despite his basic general competence, there would always be certain duels, certain situations, that would overcome him. And the other main problem with putting Fabinho on defense was that he no longer had Fabinho to protect him.
That subtle change was both visible and invisible. Despite all the failures in defense, impotence up front, one of the main problems with Liverpool during their recent cold snap has been that feeling of emptiness in the middle – the feeling that over time a sharp midfield it had become something. frictionless, a bit conflict averse. Fabinho brings refinement and poise, but he also brings a mongrel grunt: the awkward contact, the stealthy barges, the tactical fouls. The aerial challenge that will not win the ball, but will cause an opponent to lose their balance slightly. The body check that will slow down a runner without convincing the referee to blow up.
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Fabinho’s influence forced Leipzig to make decisions that they really did not want to make. One of his favorite starting balls is the little 40-yard dink to the center circle from the side: drawing the press to the flanks and then releasing the ball into a dangerous space. Fabinho just ate those passes all night, forcing Leipzig to go further, to play the extra pass, to take the throw-in. Despite his possession, Leipzig had very few goal visions. How will Ozan Kabak and Nat Phillips fare as a midfielder couple? Thanks to Fabinho, we still don’t really know.
The real revelation, however, was the transformative effect on Thiago Alcântara. For much of his time in England, Thiago has been a luxuriously lost figure in Liverpool’s painfully stretched midfield – a master pastry chef in a world where everyone eats dog food straight out of the can. Of Liverpool’s regular starters this season, no one averages less than Thiago’s measly 1.07 points per game. But with Fabinho by his side, the Spaniard could go further and just create: burst into goal, win the ball from Marcel Sabitzer high up on the field, clear Mo Salah with a taekwondo kick pass.
The Champions League has been a frequent source of false hope for Liverpool this season. Ultimately, it became his last hope – his only chance to save something memorable from this forgettable season.
Leipzig’s style could hardly have been better suited to Liverpool’s. The three forwards are still wasting too many chances, even if Salah and Sadio Mané scored goals to build confidence in the end.
But perhaps the real irony was that Liverpool seemed much more at home here than it has seen in recent weeks. It’s quite a melancholic thought, actually: that a soulless bowl in Budapest, with You’ll Never Walk Alone on a recorded tape, might somehow seem less bizarre than Anfield. But that’s the Fabinho effect for you: a team that seemed so adrift now feels calm, immovably anchored.
