Hey Pub

Jürgen Klopp calls him "the best back-up in the world", friends admire and in 2022 he is not only the glue of Liverpool and the small details man, but more conquering than Ronaldo, Messi and Lautro alike.

At the height of his career, Fabigno arrives to meet the team that missed him five years ago

Tomer Yitzhak

16/02/2022

Wednesday, February 16, 2022, 2:30 p.m.

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In April 2017, just before the Champions League semi-final between Monaco and Juventus, Piero Osilio arrived at Monte Carlo.

The sporting director of Inter fantasies at the time about getting Killian Ambape with the help of the owner's money from China, but the meeting with agent Jorge Mendes dealt with another Monaco player: Fabigno.

For Inter, Fabigno seems to be the ideal successor to the legendary right-back Macon.

He impressed in that position in Monaco and in his first summons to the Brazil national team in 2015, he was bounced off the young team only because the same Macon was removed from the senior squad at the last minute.

"I loved him very much when he played for Inter, the truth is he was a source of inspiration for me," Fabigno admitted.

But two days after that meeting in Monte Carlo, Osilio returned to Italy, was asked about the candidates from Monaco and just rolled over the possibility of signing them: "You have no idea how much they cost. Monaco is an expensive boutique piece."

A little over a year later, and after Fabigno had already established himself as a midfielder, Liverpool laid out 50 million euros in the same boutique to add him to its ranks.

Tonight (Wednesday, 22:00) he arrives in San Siro as the Hottest player on the Mercedes, in his 150th appearance in a Liverpool uniform and in the status of "the best back contact in the world", at least if you ask Jürgen Klopp.

More on Walla!

Klopp ahead of Inter in the eighth: "It does not matter to us who we play against"

To the full article

No longer under the radar.

Fabino (Photo: GettyImages, Jose Manuel Alvarez / Quality Sport)

The Fabino deal proved itself already in the first season.

The player who was an anchor in Monaco and one of the stars of the championship in 2017, needed a period of acclimatization and was not a partner at all in the first eight league rounds, but after his debut as a substitute against Huddersfield began to get more opportunities and by the end of his debut season was already a significant player.

On Boxing Day 2018 he celebrated a debut goal against Newcastle, then proved his ability as a stopper as well and in the deciding stages of the Champions League opened with a link in all games, until the coveted win.

The lifting streak continued well into 2019/20, with Liverpool’s first championship after 30 years.

This time "Pub" played exclusively in the back-to-back position, scoring twice with long-range kicks against Manchester City and Crystal Palace, adding three touchdowns in the league and one in the Champions League.

Between his first goal in England and his second goal, no less than 319 days passed.

Now, for comparison, he stands at five goals in his last seven games.

Still, the key season was actually the previous one, which Liverpool finished without a title.

The Brazilian did not score at all and contributed only one touchdown, but played more than in the first two seasons and mostly just holes as a brake.

Out of 42 appearances in all competitions in 2020/21, Fabigno has been placed 24 times in the center of defense, following the injuries of Virgil Van Dyke and Joel Matip.

Jordan Henderson and he had to play together as brakes and were not bad, but Liverpool dropped within a month from first place to a position they are not even sure of in the first four.

This shift only illustrated how vital Fabino is in the back link.

"Fabino and Hendo did a very good job as brakes last season and we had really good games with them, but obviously it hurt our stability and it is impossible to succeed in the long run without stability," Klopp said last month.

"How good is Fabigno? His quality is exceptional. He's the best back midfielder in the world. When he's at his best, and in midfield, he allows you to think of so many other things. It's very significant. You can organize your defense differently because there is someone to rely on. ".

"Its quality is exceptional."

Jürgen Klopp with Fabigno (Photo: GettyImages, Chris Brunskill)

By 2022, Fabino was the man of the little details.

The one under the radar, the black verb of Liverpool.

In the new year no radar can miss him, and in the days without Muhammad Salah and Sadio Mane he even took center stage and made some journalists claim that he was "Liverpool's most important signing in the Klopp era".

The two big stars went to the African Championship and Liverpool found themselves in offensive distress, but the one who hurried to help Diego Jote was Fabino.

And unlike his previous goals, recently he has been doing it from an extension, as someone who joins from the other line and knows where to position himself.

It started with a pair in the cup to the Shrewsbury network, continued with goals in threes against Brentford and Crystal Palace (second penalty in the absence of Salah) and stood out 0-1 at Burnley on Sunday, against the opponent with whom he had previously missed due to his father's death.

"Pub has become a goal machine, he has a tendency to be in the right place and at the right time. He finished it like a striker," defender Andy Robertson complimented after the winning goal.

In fact, in 2022, the 28-year-old Fabigno not only manages to do his job perfectly, but returns to Liverpool the dimension that Georginio Vinaldom has given her in previous years, with goals from the other line.

In a month Fabiano has scored more than in his three-and-a-half seasons at Liverpool, and if you will then even more than they scored in 2022 with Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and his rival tonight Otto Martinez combined.

His wife Rebecca, herself a footballer who retired following the move to Liverpool, distilled the successful period after the win over Burnley into one tweet: "brake + contact + striker = Fabino".

"He would have scored even more for Liverpool if I had placed him wide in stationary situations," Klopp stressed following the goal against Burnley.

"Only recently did we start doing that and he scored a great goal. The corner kick came to Sadio Mana as planned, just not at the desired height, so he got the maximum out of the situation with a great shot and Pub was there in perfect timing to score from the five box."

Want to swing again.

Fabino after winning the Champions League in 2019 (Photo: GettyImages, Chris Brunskill)

Liverpool will be happy to receive from their fiery Brazilian also a first goal in the Champions League (in the Monaco uniform he did it twice) but knows that when it comes to chores in the midfield he is a safe bet.

Some of the teammates called him the "guard", thanks to his ability to defend the brakes and thanks to the cladding he gives the defenders and allows them to move forward.

The young Tyler Morton actually gave him the nickname "The Paste".

The 19-year-old talent, who started twice in place of Fabino in the final rounds of the Champions League home stage and also in the league against Tottenham, explained: "I know I have to know the defensive sides of the role and there is no one better to learn from than Pub. "I learn from him every day - I always see what he does in training and also in videos afterwards. The truth is that I learned his game at the end of my time in the team until the age of 23. What he does is just unbelievable."

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