Jurgen Klopp singles out Fabinho for praise as Sadio Mane stars against Chelsea
Jurgen Klopp praised his Liverpool side for their 2-0 win over Chelsea, highlighting Fabinho and match-winner Sadio Mane for their input.
Usually the Reds’ holding midfield option, the Brazilian was pressed into action in defence due to injuries elsewhere and produced a very accomplished performance to largely keep Timo Werner quiet.
The Reds manager picked out Fabinho’s performance as particularly impressive, noting his stand-in centre-back won his individual battles when it mattered.
“Timo is a top player,” Klopp told Sky Sports. "With space [behind the defence]…there’s no tactic which can defend him when he has the ball, but Fabinho is outstanding, a really good challenger.
“Today he enjoyed it a lot. If Sadio doesn’t score two goals then a man of the match contender is Fab.”
It was indeed Mane who was the game-changing figure, however, as the No. 10 won the free-kick which led to Andreas Christensen’s red card before scoring twice in quick succession after the break.
Klopp was pleased with Mane’s industry as much as his quality, while new signing Thiago made his debut as a half-time substitute and hinted at the quality to come.
"Everybody was involved and had a real hand in this result. I loved both goals for different reasons; the first how we played it was really good, top cross, the movement from Sadio in front of the opponent.
"The next goal, we did it the whole game: chase the goalkeeper and when you get the reward it’s especially nice.
“Thiago trained and played with Spain so [fitness is] not a problem but he’s not used to our system, he needs to get used to his [team-]mates but it was a perfect game. Defensively it was tricky for him because we set up different [to Bayern] but with the ball, that’s him.”
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