The Fab Four(-or-More Years Older Than He Appears)
Fabinho has struggled this season and here's why
After Fabinho’s remarkable cameo at Brighton last weekend, I had planned to put his 2022 into context, to try to explain why he might be in such woeful form this season.
The poor bloke must be exhausted. He was injured in a match at Aston Villa in early May, then rushed back less than three weeks later to play in the small matter of a Champions League final.
A mere five days after that disappointment he was in Korea, representing Brazil from the bench in a pair of friendlies. It’s hard to determine exactly how much of a break Fabinho had following that commitment, but as he started Liverpool’s first pre-season friendly five weeks later, it won’t have been too long.
Only five outfield members of Jürgen Klopp’s squad got more minutes in the warm-up games, and only three have topped his tally in the 2022/23 season itself. Oh, and he was at the World Cup too. Irrespective of only playing one game, it won’t be relaxing to be part of a Brazil squad at the biggest show in football, with all the pressure that carries.
“There,” I thought, “a pretty solid case to explain his troubles.” And then I saw this, an image from a single tweet which made a much, much stronger argument.
Where I looked at the last six months or so, this lays out Fabinho’s club career. The data is based on last season, so Liverpool’s number three is listed as 27 years old, his age when 2021/22 began. Yet if you track his dot across to the white dashed line, you realise that by the end of the campaign he had played the typical total of club minutes recorded by a 34-year-old.
I hadn’t looked at Fabinho’s club career playing time before but it’s worth a once over. There were three seasons for Monaco in which he broke the 4,000 minute barrier, and while he has had injuries at times with the Reds, he’s never been too far short of 3,000 minutes at his worst with them. Add in 1,467 international minutes and he has the equivalent of over 400 full matches in his legs.
There was once a famous Twitter argument regarding the age of Jackson Martinez, with the key line being “he’s 28 until he becomes 29, that’s how it works.” Unfortunately for Fabinho, his career has worked out that he’s 29 but effectively 35.
Other work highlights
Links for all of my work from this week can be found here, but here are my three favourites.
Liverpool’s new tactics should present Darwin Núñez with more high value scoring opportunities, and here’s why.
Cody Gakpo made his name on the left but has been repeatedly played centrally by Klopp. The new Firmino, anyone?
When is an innaccurate cross an effective one? Here’s the answer, though you could ask Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Share the things you love
What’s your favourite compilation album? One of mine is The Upper Cuts, by Alan Braxe, Fred Falke and Friends. It’s finally being reissued on vinyl, which is fantastic news as original copies from 2005 go for an average of £125 on Discogs. If you like French house music, this is for you. And if not, have a good weekend anyway.