Jamie Carragher was part of Sky Sports’ Super Sunday post-match panel that reacted to Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge at the weekend his analysis was subsequently shared via the Sky Sports Football Podcast.
Carragher spent some time discussing Fabinho’s performance in this past weekend’s game during the show, with the £50.4m-rated midfielder having played at centre-back in this game and the former Reds defender was full of praise for the Brazilian.
Here is what he had to say about Fabinho’s performance in Liverpool’s clash with the Blues on Sunday: “There’s been talk of Liverpool maybe needing a centre-back. [Dejan] Lovren’s left; [Joel] Matip, you can’t trust fitness-wise; that just leaves Joe Gomez but I thought [Fabinho] was outstanding today.
“Normally players who play, I feel, in the centre of the pitch, certainly a holding-midfield role and they fill in for people at different times, they read the game really well, they have a great understanding of the game.
“He was just brilliant today and I think that puts to bed any thought that Liverpool may have had of thinking they need another centre-back.
“I actually felt, would Jurgen Klopp put Virgil van Dijk on the right and Fabinho to the left? Just to deal with the pace of Timo Werner – even when he plays centrally, Werner, he always just loves that left channel and I just thought it may be something he looked at.
“He didn’t, he left Fabinho there and two or three times in the first half you thought he was going to get really exposed and he dealt with it superbly.”
Do Liverpool need to sign another centre-back?
YES
NO
TIF Thoughts…
As can be seen in what Carragher had to say, it certainly seems as though he had his concerns about how Fabinho would fare at centre-back versus Chelsea but the ex-Reds defender appears to be pleased with how the Brazilian performed.
As per WhoScored, Fabinho earned the fourth-highest overall rating (7.44/10) of any Liverpool player in this game. He also made more tackles (four), more interceptions (four) and played the joint-second-highest number of accurate long balls (five) within the Liverpool side at the weekend.
So, with that in mind, we feel that it is understandable why Carragher seems to have been so impressed by Fabinho’s performance versus Chelsea, especially when you consider that he was not playing in his main position.