EFL Cup

Jurgen Klopp: 'Fabinho may need six months to adapt'

By Daniel Lewis, Senior Reporter | 26 September 2018

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp expects £42m summer signing Fabinho to take half a year to acclimatise to the demands of English football.

Jurgen Klopp has warned that it may take six months before Liverpool supporters see summer signing Fabinho fully settle into his new surroundings.

The Brazilian midfielder has clocked up less than a minute of competitive football for the Reds since joining from Monaco in a £42m transfer.

A week on from coming off the bench in the 3-2 win over Paris Saint-Germain, Klopp is expected to hand the 24-year-old his full debut in Wednesday's EFL Cup tie against Chelsea.

Klopp believes that Fabinho still has some way to go before acclimatising to English football, though, telling reporters: "It's not different between him and other players. It's really not complicated, he just needs to get used to it. It's about positioning, it's about reaction, about spaces defensively, closing them, offensively using them.

"It's a football team with a specific way of playing. It needs time, and they were all used to other football teams. So you have natural runs in a team. Like, let me say, a very famous movement here was Phillip Coutinho. Half left, [cut] inside, nice shot!

"For this one, you needed somebody to overlap and make it difficult to defend, so that one defender at least is busy. Things like that explain it. It's completely normal. There's no time to say, 'I give you that, or that', but it will happen. Because the game is so quick and intense, it needs to get natural.

"It's not about changing these players, we want their football personality. They are here because of what they did. Three or five weeks sound like a long time in football, but to improve something you can give half a year, to really make the next step. That's it."

Fabinho made a combined 39 appearances in Ligue 1 and the Champions League during his final season at Monaco.