Liverpool drew 2-2 vs Chelsea on Sunday evening in the Premier League. It was a particularly disappointing performance from Fabinho.
Liverpool went into this one in disarray – no Jurgen Klopp, no Thiago, no Roberto Firmino, no Alisson, no Joel Matip. Not exactly ideal, then, and the only help came from Chelsea also missing several stars themselves.
The result was a chaotic game where neither team could firmly establish control. You could tell that both lacked a little fluidity, let alone confidence, without key players to fall back on.
And that perhaps showed best in the Liverpool midfield. Jordan Henderson and James Milner had very poor games, particularly with their pressing early on. Unfortunately, that seemed to have an effect on Fabinho, who couldn’t get ahold of things for Liverpool.
Fabinho struggles for Liverpool vs Chelsea
Look, one stat sums the performance up – Fabinho won only 29% of his tackles against Chelsea. He attempted seven, won just two and the Blues consistently moved past the Liverpool midfielder.
That’s not good enough by any stretch of the imagination and Fabinho certainly wasn’t at his best. Even with the ball, his touch was off and he struggled against the Chelsea press. They tackled him twice, in fact.
Are we worried? Of course not – Fabinho is world-class and should start every game. This was an off-day, though – a very rare one and a sign of how far off the pace Liverpool were at times.
The midfield was a real problem, both isolating Fabinho and giving the ball away in dangerous positions. The fact the Brazilian struggled to correct things just made a bad situation worse.
Liverpool can certainly move on, regroup and expect better from everyone next time out. But this was a very poor one – from Fabinho and the rest of the midfield.
Read our picks for Liverpool’s best players vs Chelsea here.
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