Back on Monday, the day before Liverpool faced Bayern Munich for the Champions League, we covered an interview Jurgen Klopp gave to Esporte Interativo talking about his problems in the team.
The manager had revealed he would have to use Fabinho as a centre-back to replace Virgil van Dijk, and said they had been training that way so the team would have the needed chemistry as soon as possible.
Now with the Reds keeping a clean sheet in the 0-0 draw, it looks like things worked fine for them, and Fabinho was the one who spoke to Esporte Interativo after the game.
The Brazilian was happy to say everything was alright for the 90 minutes, as the teammates around him all helped in such a crucial match.
“Man, replacing the best defender in the world is not easy. But I had already played a few games in that position. We had enough days to work for this game, we even traveled to Spain to prepare, focus a lot on the game, prepare tactically,” Fabinho told Esporte Interativo.
“During all the preparation, this worked well, with me there in defence, the communication with Matip worked well, both with him and with Robertson that is on my side, Henderson is also there near us. So I think we did a good job here today in defence, Joel had a great game, and it was important not to concede at home. And we know that the attack we face is a powerful attack, but we knew how to defend ourselves well.”
Reporter Fred Caldeira then mentioned he’s spoken to Cleber Xavier, who’s Tite’s assistant at the national team, and was told that they’re planning to use Fabinho only as a midfielder.
“Oh man, I’ve been doing my job here at the club. I’ve been thankfully playing a lot lately, which was something that worried me at first. But now I have had a good sequence in the team, I have adapted well, I think my performances have been good too. So if things go well in the club, the opportunities in the national team appear.
“I was present at the last call ups, which is good and important to me. I’m not too worried about the call, I didn’t know what you just said, that you talked to Cleber, but I want to be present in this next call. I hope to be there in a few months at the Copa America. I’m going to keep doing my job at Liverpool for things to come naturally.”
