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Fabinho has admitted that it is useless to even THINK about replacing Virgil van Dijk.
“Of course I am not Virgil, he is the best defender in the world right now,” he said with only the ghost of a smile briefly flashing across his relentless features.
The Brazilian was speaking after Liverpool’s important Champions League victory over Ajax, where he was tasked with the impossible task of filling the huge gap in the heart of the Champions’ defense, left by the injury to his talisman.
Perhaps impossible, but Fabinho made a good impression anyway, producing a man-of-the-match display, and a vital punt from the goal line, to ensure the Reds got off to a winning start in the competition.
While dismissing any question of being able to match his teammate, who was voted among the top three players in the world, the Samba star revealed that coach Jurgen Klopp has demanded that he at least copy Van Dijk in one vital area: Leadership. .
It is a challenge that he loves.
(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
“The coach told me that I have to talk more to try to organize the team. Sometimes I have to get the second balls out and be ready to press. In this role, I must try to do my best.
“When I learned that Virgil was out for a long time, I was shocked because, first of all, he is the best defender in the world right now.
“But above all, he is a leader in the team and in the dressing room.
“He also makes sure the mood is good, a good atmosphere, and we will miss him. But I have to do a little of what Virgil always does. I must try to organize the team. Talk to the team and try to be a leader.
(Image: LAURENCE GRIFFITHS / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
“Tactically, as a central defender, I have to always be ready for long balls.
“But I will do my best and it was very important for me and for the team to keep a clean sheet here.”
It’s a devastating blow nonetheless, with goalkeeper Adrian, who has been tasked with the equally impossible job of replacing Allison, summing up the shock and challenge on the team when he said:
“We are going to miss Virgil this season. It is a great loss for us, but this is how we react. We have good players who play in this position with Fabinho and Joe. We have a great squad ”.
(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Van Dijk himself showed that he is still ready to lift Liverpool’s spirits with a message to the entire team before they play in Amsterdam.
But as his close friend Gini Wijnaldum explained after the victory, there will be no discussions with the prominent defender on football in the first months of his recovery, no matter how the season goes.
“Virgil sent a message, he wished us good luck in the group chat of the application, he wished everyone the best,” he explained.
“But for me, I don’t think this is the right time to talk to Virgil about soccer, because soccer at the moment is not the most important thing.
I think for him and me when we talk together, the most important thing is his rehabilitation and stuff. So when I talk to him, it’s more about life than football.
“It may change in a few months because then he will be very advanced in his rehabilitation and he will be able to talk about the games.
“But right now is definitely not the right time to talk football with Virgil.”
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