Peterborough United chairman Darragh MacAnthony is not happy with Jurgen Klopp’s treatment of Liverpool youngster Fabio Carvalho.
Speaking on his The Hard Truth podcast, MacAnthony criticised Klopp’s decision to start Carvalho against Brighton on Saturday.
“He needs to take some of those players out the firing line. I’m watching on Saturday and I’m a Carvalho fan, he’s going to be a terrific player, but you’re playing Brighton. They are no mugs, they’re a good team,” said the chairman. “And you pick a front three of Carvalho, Firmino and Salah. On the bench Jota, Diaz, Nunez. £200 million worth of strikers on the bench.
“Did you arrogantly think that you were just going to roll over Brighton? You didn’t need to do that with Carvalho, don’t kill the kid. Take your time. Diaz should have been in, or Nunez has to be in.”
MacAnthony, who is a Liverpool fan, also suggested that Klopp isn’t using Darwin Nunez correctly right now.
“If I’m the owner of Liverpool – and I’m not their [FSG] biggest fan – but let me tell you right now if you spent £70 million on Nunez, we’re not handling him right,” he said.
Carvalho gets deserved chance, but doesn’t quite take it
It was certainly a surprise to see Carvalho line up against Brighton on Saturday. But this feels like harsh criticism from MacAnthony.
Carvalho has shown himself to be well worthy of a decent sized role at Liverpool. In the early weeks of the season he was legitimately one of their best performers. The 20-year-old is good value for his minutes.
When you also factor in that all of Jota, Nunez and Diaz returned late from international duty, Klopp’s decision starts to make more sense.
That doesn’t mean it was necessarily the right call, just that it was an understandable thing to do.
The way the game went, Carvalho ended up being taken off at half time. This of course isn’t an ideal scenario as it could well dent the young man’s confidence.
But Klopp doesn’t tend to give out minutes for nothing, especially in the Premier League. Carvalho earned his start but by the same token, it was the right call to replace him.
Given the fire power on the bench and their respective situations, maybe it was even a pre-arranged substitution. Who knows.
Either way, Carvalho didn’t really grab his chance against Brighton. He’ll definitely get more throughout the season, but for now maybe it’s best to keep him developing steadily.
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