‘Definitely’: Paul Merson is convinced Klopp’s going to pick 28-year-old Liverpool man to start vs Bournemouth

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Paul Merson thinks Jurgen Klopp will return Fabinho to the starting line-up against Bournemouth.

Writing for Sportskeeda, Merson claimed that the Liverpool man will start tomorrow, and should be one of the ‘first names on the team sheet.’

“I was shocked that Fabinho didn’t start against Man United. He should’ve been the first name on the team sheet. He’s definitely starting this game. You don’t need two defensive midfielders against Bournemouth, and I think Fabinho will play in his position with Van Dijk and Gomez behind him,” said the pundit.

Merson also thinks Klopp will change-up who plays alongside Fabinho in the midfield. Although he expects Harvey Elliott to retain his place, he thinks Fabio Carvalho may come into the side.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if Fabio Carvalho and Harvey Elliott play as well. Liverpool will dominate this match, and if you’re going to have a lot of the ball, you’d be better off with Carvalho and Elliott in your team.”

Liverpool won’t make Fabinho mistake again

It’s hard to shake off the feeling that Klopp got it wrong against Manchester United. There’s no way that Fabinho should have been on the bench.

When all Liverpool’s midfielders are fit, he’s still the first pick of the three positions. With The Reds desperately short of options, he becomes even more crucial.

As Merson points out though, it’s unlikely that Liverpool need to set-up too defensively against Bournemouth. They’re likely to dominate and need to make sure they finally score the game’s first goal.

As a result, it would surely have been this game, not the United one, where Fabinho could have had a breather.

Either way, the debacle of Old Trafford is now in the past. All Klopp can do now is look at what went wrong and try to correct it at Anfield.

A large part of what went wrong was Fabinho being absent, so that should be addressed.

It can’t change what happened on Monday night, and maybe Liverpool still would have lost even with their no.3 in the team. But adding him back in should at least give them a better chance of a desperately needed three points tomorrow afternoon.

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