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McClaren raves about Fabinho

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Steve McClaren heaped praise on Liverpool midfield enforcer Fabinho and admitted he previously had doubts about him.

The former England boss shared he doubted the Reds midfielder when he first arrived at Anfield and claimed that the player had grown in stature ever since.

McClaren even joked with Sky presenter Rob Wotton that he wished Fabinho was English given that Gareth Southgate has a dilemma regarding who is England’s best midfield enforcer.

“Fabinho, I thought he was a little bit doubtful when he first came,” said McClaren on Football Centre (11:21, Sky Sports News, Tuesday October 15th).

“But I’ve gotta say he has grown and grown in stature, we were just talking about Rice (Declan) & Winks (Harry) trying to find an answer for England, he’s certainly been the answer for Liverpool.”

“Absolutely (Rob Wotton said shame he’s not English).”

OPINION

Fair play to McClaren admitting that he doubted Fabinho when he first arrived as it’s more than acceptable to say that Brazilian got off to a slow start. The 25-year-old was signed from Monaco in the summer of 2018 and didn’t feature in the Reds’ first eight league games of the season, with Jurgen Klopp likely ensuring the midfielder knew what he wanted from him in training before unleashing him. Yet once Fabinho got into the first-team on a regular basis and started to learn from his experience as well as adapt to the Premier League, he hasn’t looked back. In fact this season, the midfield enforcer has got his campaign off to a red-hot start. The 25-year-old has bossed Liverpool’s midfield in his eight Premier League outings as he has averaged 2.5 tackles per game, 1.1 interceptions per game and has even been useful from an attacking perspective as he has on average made 1.1 key passes per match (Source: WhoScored). While Fabinho doesn’t have the most glamorous of jobs in Klopp’s team, he’s effectively there to break up play and set the tempo, he does it with such style you can’t help but admire him. So it’s no wonder he has caught McClaren’s eye.

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