Liverpool lost 2-0 in the opening game of the 2019/20 Champions League season for the reigning title holders, but it wasn’t all negative.
The Reds did put in a good performance, and you can’t take anything away from Napoli, but the two-goal score-line is a little flattering for the hosts.
The Italians were toe-to-toe with us in the first half, but Jurgen Klopp’s men began to dominate the game in the latter stages of the second half.
It was only until Jose Callejon’s blatant dive, which resulted in Napoli being gifted a penalty, that the hosts started to really threaten us.
A rare error by Virgil van Dijk also gave Fernando Llorente a chance to make it 2-0, and the Spaniard made no mistake for his new club.
But the gleaming positive to take from our loss at the San Paolo is Fabinho – the holding midfielder was nothing short of world-class in his dominant performance.
If the match ended after one hour, we’d all be singing his praises now, but his performance may yet go under the radar (understandably so).
Fabinho was aggressive in his playing style and stopped Carlo Ancelotti’s men from playing the way they wanted to -he was like a bulldog.
He never stopped running throughout the entire first half – I think he may actually be better than Javier Mascherano when he was at Anfied.
Henderson and Fabinho both excellent so far. Composed start from #LFC
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) September 17, 2019
Fabinho is such a teacher's pet with the whole gegenpress thing. Proper suck up, running around that much.
— Nooruddean (@BeardedGenius) September 17, 2019
Fabinho is everywhere. pic.twitter.com/jR5g6wLeV1
— Caoimhín ☘️ (@Speirsiuloir) September 17, 2019