Liverpool legend Phil Thompson has made an interesting David Beckham comparison with Fabio Carvalho. The playmaker will ‘shock everbody’.
Phil Thompson has clearly been wowed by Fabio Carvalho. The Liverpool legend raved about him a few weeks ago after his performance against RB Leipzig.
“Fabio Carvalho is going to be a star,” Thompson told LFCTV. “There’s something about him when he gets the ball. His awareness on the pitch is nothing short of sensational.”
And now he’s at it again. Thompson spoke to the Off The Ball podcast where he once again talked up Carvalho as a potential star. He even sees a small comparison to David Beckham in there.
“I’ve seen enough of him for Fulham but what he brings and what I think Liverpool look at, as much as the goals, are the assists,” he said. “I think they’re big things that people look at. Yes, you can help people with those but you have to have – you go back to David Beckham.
“People go ‘oh he picks people out’ – no he doesn’t. He puts the ball in the right area for strikers and that’s what Carvalho is. He is going to be a star, I can tell you. He’s got so much ability and he will shock everybody.”
Fabio Carvalho comparison
Now, obviously, Carvalho doesn’t really play anything like Beckham. He’s not a winger who looks to whip crosses into the box.
But Thompson is right in terms of the kind of playmaking Carvalho wants to do. He’s fantastic and moving the ball into dangerous areas and while he does it in a different way to Beckham, it’s a similar idea.
That game against Leipzig actually showed it very well. Jurgen Klopp appears to want his attacking midfielders to consistently move the ball into those dangerous areas, where Darwin Nunez will thrive.
The all-action striker is strong enough, fast enough, and intelligent enough to hit those spaces with his runs. Carvalho – and the likes of Harvey Elliott – will learn quickly that they need only find those dangerous areas to rack-up assists.
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