After being knocked out of the FA Cup by Brighton, Jurgen Klopp has a major issue on his hands with two of his players.
When he made three substitutions in the 59th minute, taking out Trent Alexander-Arnold, Harvey Elliott and Naby Keita and replacing them with James Milner, Darwin Nunez and Jordan Henderson, Liverpool seemed to lose intensity and control to the point where they looked far more exposed.
Of those who came on as substitutes, Fabinho had the worst cameo after being brought on for Stefan Bajcetic in the 84th minute. Within two minutes of entering play, he confronted Evan Ferguson with an illegal tackle which deserved much more than just a yellow card according to VAR’s assessment.
The incident led to Ferguson being forced from the pitch due to injury but Fabinho was somehow only shown a yellow card.
Henderson and Fabinho have been in poor form all season; their presence from the bench is quickly becoming an issue for Liverpool moving forward.
As experienced veterans whose contracts don’t expire until 2025 and 2026 respectively, what was once seen as short-term dips in form now looks like long-term trends that may be impossible to fix.
Klopp had previously said that “you get through it at one point you are back to yourself” when talking about Fabinho’s drop off in form – however he has been unable to fix his declining performance over 12 months making it look like extra support is needed if Liverpool want him performing closer to his best levels again.
Article updated 2 months ago. Content is written and modified by multiple authors.
