Few expected the relegation Fabinho experienced last season, but Jurgen Klopp was quick to defend his midfielder again, explaining the deadline for the player to return to full fitness.
Speaking to the media ahead of the Crystal Palace game, the 55-year-old said: “It took a while, but I think Fabinho now is completely different to what we saw four or five weeks ago, we have to keep it up now.
“It is like [he’s playing at] 80% but it was not a problem at all in the game (against Real Madrid), he looked much better but he had to play a lot. So it’s not like click, click, click, he’s back, he’s still playing, this kind of thing, because we have a lot of number 6s.
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“Stefan Bajectic can play him, Jordan Henderson can play him, but when Fabinho is at his best, it’s very important to have him there because he solves a lot of situations for us. That was fine in these last few games.
“’Fabinho returned from injury?’ No! It can just happen. A drop in form and no one was expecting it and you look at it and think ‘OK, that’s interesting to watch.’ But yes, everything needs time in a company when there is no time”.
It must be very frustrating for both player and manager that this slump in form can go on for so long, but it’s great for our number 3 that he’s being publicly endorsed and that the boss is prepared to look forward to it.
Hopefully we don’t have to wait much longer for that 80% to reach 100% and for the Brazilian to recover the level of performance that led him to be considered one of the best players in world football, in his position.
You can watch Klopp’s comments on Fabinho (starting at 3:53) via BeanymanSports on YouTube:
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