Former Man United full-back Gary Neville has marked Liverpool’s Fabinho as the best holding midfielder in the Premier League right now.
And the current pundit believes that the likes of Scott McTominay and Declan Rice are in the same mould and could learn a lot from studying the Brazilian.
Fabinho joined Liverpool from AS Monaco in the summer of 2018 but the 25-year-old took a fair bit of time to settle down at the club.
At one point, the midfielder was shaping out to be the next major flop at Anfield but thankfully he picked up his game and now he is one of the first names on Jurgen Klopp’s team sheet.
And talking about Fabinho, Neville told Sky Sports(as reported by The Metro): ‘You talk about England, World Cups and European Championships, Premier League, Fabinho is absolutely sensational on the ball, Busquets is unbelievable on the ball.
‘I think Fabinho at the moment is the best. Because what Fabinho does actually, he doesn’t sit back in games. These holding midfield players who just play horizontally, passing sideways, shuttling across, but Fabinho plays vertically as well.
‘He goes forward with his passes, he moves forward and steps in and wins the ball back. I think the best holding midfield players aren’t just people who basically shuffle across and make it look simple, they also step into the game.
‘It’s the ability of knowing where you are with your back to play. I played the odd game in midfield and it was awful, even when I was full-back and I ended up in midfield just out of position sometimes and someone plays a pass into you, you think, “Oh, what’s behind me?”
‘The great players they know what’s over their shoulder, they receive it on the half-turn, they take the ball to the right side when there’s a player coming from the other side.
‘They’ve[Scott McTominay and Declan Rice] got that ability to do it,
‘I think there’s another player at Manchester United, Scott McTominay, who’s having that similar type of journey.
‘These two players are doing absolutely brilliantly, they’re great lads, you can just tell they’re great lads, but then you talk about measuring them against the great midfield players.
‘Once you’re at that level when you’re playing for Man United or England [in Rice’s case], it’s not harsh to judge them at that level with their contemporaries. Which is Fabinho, it is the best players in Europe, like Busquets.
‘They’ve got a lot of development to do, but I think they’re on track. So there’s no sort of criticism here, it’s whether they get their next jump up which is the ability to receive the ball in tight situations, on the half-turn, in the biggest matches, under the biggest pressure, against the best players.’
VERDICT:
Towards the start of the 2018-19 season, Fabinho found it really hard to get starts but as the season rolled along the 25-year-old managed to create a niche for himself under Jurgen Klopp.
And what many people might not understand that the Brazilian not only helps in starting those quick-fire counter-attacks but he also provides an additional screen to the Liverpool defence.
