Liverpool suffered their second defeat of the season with a 1-0 loss at Leicester City. Fabinho played well but his teammates failed to take advantage.
Liverpool have been fantastic at times this season but that certainly wasn’t the case at Leicester on Tuesday. They lost the game 1-0 and just didn’t assert themselves on the game. There were chances, yes, but the Reds couldn’t force a result, nor did they apply the kind of pressure on the Foxes that you’d expect.
But that doesn’t mean no one played well. We picked out Joel Matip after the game as a standout – his all-around performance was fantastic. We were perhaps harsh in not highlighting Fabinho, however.
The Liverpool midfielder actually put in a fairly brilliant 63 minutes before going off. In fact, his teammate simply failed to take advantage of how good he was.
Fabinho shines for Liverpool vs Leicester
As we say, Liverpool didn’t establish a proper degree of control here. Their passing was primarily the problem, however, rather than losing the midfield battle.
Because Fabinho undoubtedly won the midfield battle for Liverpool vs Leicester. His five tackles were as many as anyone in the game, with four of them winning the ball back. The Foxes tried to dribble past him twice, failing on both occasions, and he won another four interceptions – no other Red won more.
And Fabinho’s pressing was outstanding on a day when many struggled. He applied pressure 14 times and was successful with seven. In other words, Liverpool had the ball within six seconds 50% of the time Fabinho pressed a player.
This was about as good a base as Liverpool could have had, then. Fabinho shut Leicester down as you’d expect him to but the rest of the side just couldn’t trouble their opponents enough.
But in a disappointing Liverpool display, Fabinho undoubtedly deserves plaudits.
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