Jurgen Klopp Insists Fabinho's Time is Coming & Makes Comparison to Ilkay Gundogan
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp insists that Fabinho's time in the first team is just around the corner after comparing the Brazilian's start to life at Anfield similar to that of Andrew Robertson last season.
Summer signing Fabinho is yet to really leave his mark at Liverpool and the 25-year-old has been on the pitch for just 122 minutes across all competitions.
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Crucially, Fabinho looks set to make it three appearances out of three in the Champions League when Liverpool take on Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday.
Head coach Klopp insists that the midfielder's bedding in process is normal for players who aren't used to his 'gegenpressing'tactics, adding that Robertson and former Borussia Dortmund star İlkay Gündoğan underwent similar bedding in periods under him.
"You come to a club and it depends a bit on your personality. He's not the loudest person on the planet. He is rather reserved, looking, watching, absorbing, and it always takes a little bit more time," Klopp said, quoted by the Mirror. "But on the pitch, he is back now and that's good.
"I've no problems, honestly. Go back a year and Andy Robertson played what, one or two games by this stage? And then he became the player he now is.
"I've said it a few times, I cannot shorten that time it takes [to settle into the system]. Maybe somebody can, I can't. You come into my team, it needs a bit of time. İlkay Gündoğan needed more or less half a year without being in the squad. After that he played pretty much each game.
"That's how things go. You need to adapt to the style of play that's just it."
Despite spending the infancy of his Liverpool career on the fringes of the first team, Fabinho has already shown the majority of fans that he will improve their first team moving forward.
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The Brazil international has been at the heart of Leonardo Jardim's success with AS Monaco over the last few years, and losing Fabinho from his first team proved to be a key part of Les Monégasques' collapse this season.
