What next for Liverpool's Fabio Carvalho following Southampton snub?

 

 

Fabio Carvalho’s Liverpool career appears to be coming to a premature end.

 

According to reports, the 20-year-old looks set to leave Anfield this summer after a disappointing debut campaign on Merseyside.

 

The Reds had been desperate to bring in the versatile forward having first tried to land his signature back in January 2022. They then struck a deal with Fulham despite the youngster coming to the end of his contract at Craven Cottage. Liverpool could’ve allowed it to go to a tribunal, as they did with Harvey Elliott, but they instead opted to pay a premium just to guarantee the signing.

 

The 2019/20 Premier League champions paid an initial £5m with a further £2m to be paid in add-ons, as well as a 20% sell-on fee.

 

They didn’t exactly throw everything at this deal but they certainly played ball with Fulham. At the time it was viewed as a coup given a number of top European teams held an interest in the Portuguese youngster.

 

 

Carvalho had a decent start to life with the club, scoring in the 9-0 win over Bournemouth before netting a 98th-minute winner against Newcastle United. His Anfield career didn’t really kick on though from there. With the Reds struggling, he was used sparingly.

 

Since the turn of the year, he’s featured in just eight minutes in the Premier League. He didn’t even get a run out in the final game of the season against Southampton even though Jurgen Klopp made wholesale changes to his starting XI. In fact, his only start in 2023 arrived in the FA Cup win over Wolves.

 

The entire situation is bizarre, especially when you consider how Klopp talks about the player whenever he's asked.

 

In the build-up to the Southampton game, the Liverpool manager said the following: 

 

"The thing is, this was not Fabio’s best year of his career, clearly, in a very young career, but it might have been his most important. No player has impressed me more than Fabio, that’s the truth." 

 

Then he watched on from the bench as Liverpool played out a 4-4 draw in their final game of the season. Klopp only used four of the five substitutes available to him too.

 

Per reports, a loan move for first-team football was mooted but there have been claims that the fleet-footed youngster could leave on a permanent deal this summer after being told he isn't in Klopp's plans for the 2023/24 campaign.

 

There are contradictory reports out there that suggest a loan is more likely given the club want to keep him. On one hand, Klopp’s hands have been somewhat tied this season due to how it panned out. Injuries and poor form meant the German tactician was limited in what he could do and bedding in a talent such as Carvalho just wasn’t viable. 

 

The same sort of thing happened during the difficult 2020/21 season. Kostas Tsimikas was brought in to give Andrew Robertson a breather but injuries to other senior players meant Klopp kept the Scotland captain in the team whenever he could, just so that particular area of the team was as close to a guarantee as possible.

 

Liverpool have tried multiple systems this season and struggled to strike a balance. Throwing Carvalho into the mix would’ve been detrimental to both the player and the team. He might’ve been signed for a particular system that is no longer viewed as an option for this group. After all, the new 3-2-2-3 shape was only used from April onwards. Was that their long-term aim or did they just figure it out on the fly?

 

When he signed, many queried where the 20-year-old would be used. He was a second striker for Fulham in 4-4-2. Klopp couldn’t give a specific answer when pressed, saying: "When we watched him it was a pure joy to watch him, absolutely. He can play so many different positions for us, the way we play. At the minute he’s not really set on one position – it’s the wing, it’s the eight, it’s the 10, it’s the false nine if he grows a few more muscles. 

 

"It’s a short-term and a long-term project; he can start tomorrow and he needs to adapt, you can see that a little bit, but when he has the ball that’s proper quality. I’m over the moon that he’s here. Fantastic prospect." 

 

Yet he failed to impress when used as a No. 8 in the Merseyside derby and Liverpool are looking to bolster their midfield ranks this summer. He’s fallen down the pecking order as a left-winger with Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz all ahead of him and the Reds added Cody Gakpo as a false-nine in January.

 

So there’s no real obvious role for Carvalho, at least not in the short term. He needs to be playing regularly in order to develop though and this is why both the club and the player appear to be at a crossroads right now.


What next for Liverpool's Fabio Carvalho following Southampton snub?