Fabinho eventually emerged from the 2018/19 season as one of Jürgen Klopp’s most dependable and effective midfielders, but the Brazilian has revealed the Reds’ “irreplaceable” player.
In comments reported by Sports Witness, via the Hoje Sim podcast in Brazil, Fabinho revealed that his compatriot Roberto Firmino is that man.
His interviewer, Cléber Machado (one of Brazil’s biggest commentators) finally managed to get the information out of him in a long-ranging interview that covered the 25-year-old’s career to date.
“At Liverpool he is the perfect player there for that position,” Fabinho revealed.
Because he’s a smart guy, a guy who helps a lot in the build-up. A guy that from time to time I see him on the side recovering balls. I say, ‘Thanks, Firmino, cheers for the help’ (laughs).
“And with our characteristic of the two open players, he helps a lot because he scores goals and gives players the ball to score goals as well. And Klopp says that an irreplaceable player for him is Firmino.
“And I’m going to talk about my vision: I’ve always liked him a lot, but when you follow him every day, you realise that the guy is different. The guy is very good.”
Apparently, the interview in question entailed minimal talk about Liverpool, with the topic actually arising from the former Monaco midfielder’s recounting of stories from his seven caps with A Seleção.
Machado quizzed Fabinho on which of his national teammates suffers from being the most of being shy – a question the Reds’ No. 3 was reluctant to answer for fear of upsetting the player.
The Brazilian interviewer somehow discovered it was Bobby and Fabinho’s comments arose from there, where he championed and extolled the virtues of Klopp’s indispensable and unique No. 9.
Fabinho was outrageously not selected for the competition, but the Reds’ Brazilian duo of Bobby and Alisson have reached the semi-finals of the Copa América after beating Paraguay on penalties; eight-time winners Brazil will now meet Argentina next week.