"Miles off the pace" - Jamie Carragher on Liverpool midfielder

Pundit Jamie Carragher has given his verdict on Fabinho's recent form.

Liverpool signed the midfielder from Monaco for a transfer fee of €45 million back in the summer of 2018.

Since then, Fabinho has made 233 appearances for the club's first-team. The 28-year-old has helped the Reds win the Champions League, Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Premier League title, League Cup, FA Cup and Community Shield.

However, Carragher believes that Fabinho is "miles off the pace" at the moment.

“It’s a huge concern, certainly the start of games because they’re always giving themselves so much to do,” the ex-Red said on Sky Sports, as quoted by the Express.

“They haven’t lost many of those games, so it’s not an attitude problem, they’re still getting themselves back into games.

“We’ve spoken a lot about Liverpool conceding goals because of their high lines but for me a big problem is the midfield. Teams are coming through and getting at that back four far too easily. Also early in games, hence the poor start. They’re so open and so unorganised, this after 12 minutes against Brighton.

“They were 2-0 up but it’s fair to say they should’ve been 4-0 up after 20 minutes because Liverpool are not organised or difficult to beat as they always were. Jurgen Klopp’s thing was ‘we’re the most difficult team to play against’, right now they look like the easiest to play against.

“When there’s a turnover (of possession), I look at the midfield positions, they’re not in the positions midfield players should be to stop counter-attacks. That’s why teams can get at this back four and cause Liverpool big problems, early in games.

“You’d expect this if Liverpool are chasing a game the last 15 or 20 minutes. This is a massive problem for them right now. Every supporter would tell you, even in the summer they felt midfield would be a problem.

“There’s no doubt they’ve got a huge problem there. I think certainly Fabinho’s been miles off the pace this season to what he’s normally been.”

Anfield Watch Verdict

Fabinho has averaged a WhoScored player rating of 6.68 across the early stages of the 2022-23 campaign.

The aforementioned figure highlights that the midfielder has been off the pace this season.

But, we are confident that Fabinho can get back to his best. As we have already pointed out, the Brazilian is only 28 years of age.

In other words, Fabinho's career is far from over. We wish him all the best for the remainder of the season.