It hasn’t taken long at all for one Liverpool loanee to become a firm favourite with supporters of his temporary club.
Fabio Carvalho was Hull City’s match-winning hero on Friday night, scoring a sublime goal to secure a 1-0 victory at Sunderland and lifting them into the Championship play-off positions overnight.
In his player ratings for Hull Live, Barry Cooper awarded the 21-year-old an 8/10 and said that the youngster ‘deserved his standing ovation’ from the travelling Tigers fans.
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In stark contrast to his abortive spell at RB Leipzig in the first half of the season, Carvalho has hit the ground running at Hull, opening his account for Liam Rosenior’s side in just his second appearance for the club.
Even allowing for him dropping down to the English second tier from the Bundesliga, that goal and the 21-year-old’s all-round performance should give him the confidence to go on and excel at the MKM Stadium.
Aside from scoring last night, the attacker completed 84% of his passes, won six duels and drew no fewer than five fouls from Sunderland players (Sofascore).
The challenge for Carvalho now is to build upon that and demonstrate that it wasn’t a one-off – Liverpool fans will recall how he started his Anfield career brightly with that last-gasp winner against Newcastle but couldn’t replicate such moments thereafter.
Once he’s being selected regularly at Hull, though – and he looks a shoo-in to start their next game after his match-winning heroics last night – he’ll have the opportunity to show Jurgen Klopp that he may finally be ready to make a prolonged impact at his parent club.