‘It’s awesome to play with him!’ – Thiago raves about Fabinho after return to midfield role in Liverpool’s win over RB Leipzig
Liverpool star Thiago Alcantara has praised teammate Fabinho’s performance in Wednesday’s Champions League win over RB Leipzig after the Brazilian finally returned to his preferred midfield role.
The Merseysiders’ injury problems in defence have seen Fabinho play the majority of the season at centre-back, where he has excelled, but he was back in his usual role as a number six for the second leg of Liverpool’s last-16 clash.
He gave a superb display in the 2-0 win (4-0 on aggregate) and was named as Man of the Match by Uefa, while he looked thrilled to be back in his more familiar position protecting the defence.
Summer signing Thiago was also delighted to have Fabinho alongside him in midfield, praising the 27-year-old enforcer, and says it allowed him to play a more attacking and adventurous role.
‘Fabinho is a great player,’ Thiago told LFC TV after the win over Leipzig.
‘He gives us a lot of confidence. It’s awesome to play alongside him.
‘It meant I could move forward and play with the strikers more. I like it as it means you’re nearer the goal to create chances.
‘It’s been a tough period because in our worst nightmares we didn’t expect to be in this position in the Premier League but we’re trying to get better. This is positive for all of us.’
Fabinho himself enjoyed being back in midfield, but what he appreciated even more was the performance and hard work of the team as they secured a big win – particularly having struggled so much in the Premier League recently.
‘Yes, I missed it a little bit playing the midfield position,’ he told Liverpool’s official website.
‘In general our quality was very good tonight, the communication from our two centre-halves, the pressing from the offensive players was working very good. Everyone was good, everyone enjoyed it, everyone pressed and we did the hard work.
‘It was a great evening. We played against a really good team. We knew we had the advantage [from the first leg] and we played a really intelligent game, we had a lot of chances in the first half.
‘We didn’t score but we felt if we kept playing the same way we would score. We scored two goals and in general it was a very good, positive performance and very good for our confidence.’
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