Jurgen Klopp picked out Gini Wijnaldum for his ‘incredible job’ recently. The Dutchman clearly impressed his Liverpool boss.
Fabinho is back in midfield and things look better. That’s the feeling after the win over RB Leipzig, anyway – Liverpool felt more like Liverpool.
It means Gini Wijnaldum no longer has to do the job. The Dutchman filled the role while both Fabinho and Jordan Henderson were elsewhere – either in defence on on treatment table.
But as Fabinho takes over, Jurgen Klopp is sure to hail Wijnaldum’s work as a ‘6’.
“Gini Wijnaldum did an incredible job on that position, to be honest,” he said, per Liverpoolfc.com. “An incredible job. But there are two things.
“If you have Gini on the ‘six’ you miss him on the ‘eight’ as well.”
What RTK has to say
Wijnaldum showed his class in taking over the job. Very, very few players are capable of that kind of switch. Especially midseason at a moment’s notice.
But while it’s impressive that he can pull it off, Liverpool just weren’t the same with him there. It’s not his natural role and Fabinho being back makes a huge difference.
It’s a reminder of just how valuable Wijnaldum is, though. Here is a player who can play every single midfield role to a good level. He can hold, he can play box-to-box, he can play possession and he can push forward to threaten.
He’ll be a huge loss, if he does leave at the end of his contract in June. Replacing Wijnaldum will be near the top of the agenda, if not no.1.
Having a squad player like that is near-invaluable, even if it didn’t translate into results this time around. Liverpool will be worse-off without him.
Hopefully, then, they can sway him towards staying late in the day. It sounds as though Klopp certainly wishes for that to happen.
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