FABINHO
LIVERPOOL, 28
Unless you’re “ambushed by cake” like a bumbling world leader, then birthday presents tend to comprise gift vouchers, novelty football paraphernalia or £10 from your nan. After celebrating his 25th birthday on October 23, 2018, Fabinho’s gift from Jurgen Klopp wasn’t only a day late, it was also so abstract and lacking in ceremony that Yaya Toure would have done his nut.
“His birthday present wasn’t that he was in the starting line-up, it was that we played his favourite system, with a double six, and he played really well,” winked the Liverpool boss after his midfielder’s man-of-the-match display in a 4-0 Champions League win over Red Star Belgrade.
It was only Fabinho’s second start in red since a £39 million move from Monaco three months earlier. The Brazilian had struggled to adapt as the sole defensive midfielder in Klopp’s favoured 4-3-3 system, but on that crisp Anfield night he shone in a 4-2-3-1, similar to the formation he’d impressed in at the Stade Louis II.
“It was good to see him very aggressive, everything was there,” Klopp gushed. “For the first game – not the first game, but for a while – it was really
