Fabinho put in his best performance of 2020 against Crystal Palace on Wednesday. He was well and truly world-class.
Fabinho was outstanding against Palace. It was a necessary and overdue performance, too, as the Brazilian has no played well since his return from injury.
Having gone off injured against Napoli in November, Fabinho missed December and early January. He hasn’t looked solid since, either, either defensively or going forward.
In fact, Fabinho’s return to the Liverpool team coincided with their worst period of the season. We wrote back in February about his problems and they continued into March.
On Wednesday, however, Fabinho was truly fantastic. Defensively, the Brazilian was as solid as can be. Palace didn’t even have a touch in Liverpool’s penalty area and that’s a stat that reflects wonderfully on the defensive midfielder. He simply never let them break forward.
Fabinho saved his best for going forward, though. His inch-perfect pass for Mohamed Salah’s goal was like an elite no.10, while his goal may be the best of any Liverpool player this season.
This was the complete midfield performance, then. A dominant display and one that immediately gets Fabinho back in the discussion for the best at the holding role.
He needed that, too. The £39m man needed an elite, standout game to get him back on track and this was exactly that.
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