With Fabinho back in his proper place, Liverpool can begin to evolve again

Fabinho’s return to midfield could get Liverpool’s season back on track. Despite the pile-up of injuries, the solution for Jurgen Klopp might be as simple as deploying his best players in their best positions.

There is a good chance the question will be answered at Molineux against Wolverhampton Wanderers tonight. Fabinho was superb against RB Leipzig in the Champions League last week, but the Bundesliga side were poor in both legs. Leipzig are no yardstick for Klopp to judge his team’s level. Wolves, who are mired in the bottom half of the table, should offer a more pertinent examination. Nuno Esprito Santo’s men have had a disappointing season, but Liverpool have provided the highlight of the campaign for Burnley, Brighton and Hove Albion, Fulham and Southampton.

Fabinho is one of the few players to emerge with credit from this wreck of a season. He was either absent or used as a centre-back for these unexpected defeats. Once pressed into service in defence, the 27-year-old was outstanding, but his move created other problems. Taking him out of the midfield affected the dynamic of the team.

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Reuniting Fabinho with Georginio Wijnaldum – Jordan Henderson, the third member of the Champions League and title-winning midfield is sidelined for the foreseeable future – means that Liverpool can play something closer to their normal game. With Rhys Williams and Ozan Kabak an inexperienced pairing at centre-back, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson are bound to be more cautious than when Virgil van Dijk was anchoring the defence. Yet the team’s shape will be more like it was during the all-conquering period before the pandemic.

The next poser for Klopp is whether tactics based on the full-backs bombing forward and exchanging cross-field balls that bypassed the midfield still work. If injuries have disguised the reality that opponents have come to terms with Liverpool’s methods, the manager will need a different approach.

What is the plan B? It is not the first time that this question has been asked, even by some inside the squad.

During the first two years of the German’s tenure, there were a number of flat periods when senior players had doubts about the way things were progressing. The gripes never grew to be more than murmurs – dressing rooms can be skittish places where mood changes are rapid and swayed by short-termism. The uncertainly was a function of dead spots in the team’s generally positive progression.

Klopp has proved a number of things in the past three years. When he arrived on Merseyside there were suggestions that he was a ‘template manager’ with set ideas. This proved to be completely wrong. The 53-year-old is pragmatic. The shape of his title-winners was determined by the individual strengths of the players available to him. The next phase will be fashioned in a similar manner.

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Some of the problems of the past three months have been caused by trying to play to the same title-winning pattern with the wrong personnel. Fabinho in midfield allows an opportunity to see whether the system is spent. There were hints that it was floundering before the injuries. In retrospect, the 7-2 defeat away to Aston Villa was too easily written off as being down to Adrian’s mistakes in goal or as a discountable freak result. The long break during lockdown last season gave rival managers and coaches the time and space to plot how to stop Liverpool. Some drop-off was inevitable.

This makes it dangerous to assume that the champions will return to their best simply by getting the walking wounded back on to the pitch.

The flaws in the recruitment strategy that exacerbated the crisis have been discussed at length. It is obvious that Liverpool should have done more in the transfer market after winning the Champions League and the title, but there is considerable room for improvement within the squad.

Naby Keita was brought in before the team developed its idiosyncratic identity. Essentially, the 26-year-old was bought to play in a different type of side. His inability to stay fit has held him back but he would not have improved the team last season. Now he offers something different in midfield at a time it may be needed.

As does Thiago Alcantara. Fabinho and Wijnaldum provide the sort of discipline and vigour that can grant the third midfielder – Curtis Jones is another option – the freedom to get forward. This requires the team to work the ball through the central areas and curb the wing play that characterised the charge to Premier League success. When opponents set up to stop Alexander-Arnold and Robertson, new avenues need to be discovered.

Fabinho has the range of skills, and the nous, to be flexible in midfield. He is multi-dimensional and prepared to take on the less glamorous roles. If the team’s direction needs to change, the Brazilian is capable of driving that transition.

Great sides do not need to rip up the blueprints. They adapt. With Fabinho in the right place, Liverpool can start to evolve again.