Family man Fabinho getting used to life at Anfield
jonathan northcroft, football correspondent
His English is among those things Fabinho is still working on, but he smiles at the word and for the only time in our interview speaks without the interpreter. “Brother. Yes, like brother,” he says. We’re talking about Ricardo, his sister’s husband and somebody who, if this Brazilian comes good, will have Liverpool’s gratitude.
It was Ricardo who bought a young Fabio Henrique Tavares his first proper boots. Ricardo who drove him to games and training. Ricardo who gave up work to live in Monaco and help Fabinho’s European career take off. And it’s Ricardo who is the sounding board during an adaptation period with Liverpool that has been “really horrible” at points.
Signed for £39.3m, plus £5m add-ons, in May, Fabinho had to wait until October 27 for his first Premier League start, even finding himself omitted from matchday squads as he strove to get physically and tactically ready to play for Jurgen Klopp. “When you’re left out of the squad it’s horrible,” he says. “But whenever people asked, I never complained and said it was a matter of hard work and patience and I’ve tried to show these things. Although it’s sad when you’re not picked, I’ve never lost confidence or doubted my ability. I’ve always believed in myself — that I can bring a lot to the team.”
Now that he’s beginning to play and have an impact, he has family to thank. His mum, who continually messages, his dad, “my No 1 fan,” his wife, Rebeca, “who is always with me, and knows when I’m angry and when I don’t want to talk.” He smiles, “they are always my support.”
And Ricardo most of all. Every week, whether he had played or not, “I always talk to Ricardo and he is very wise. He sees things in an objective way and talks, not without emotion, but calmly. He never played at this level but he understands and helps a lot.”
Raised in Campinas, a city of 1.1m lying at altitude amid the subtropical forests north of Sao Paulo, Fabinho did not have the ragged favela childhood of Brazilian footballer cliche. He lived with his parents and two older sisters “in a good apartment. We were not a rich family — I’d say we were a humble one — but we never lacked for anything.”
His dad worked at various jobs to support his kids: in a railway station, a school, as a bricklayer, as a security guard. His mum was employed by a utilities company and his sisters were teaching assistants. Ricardo started dating one, Ana Paula, and soon started going to Fabinho’s youth games.
He had a car, meaning Fabinho no longer had to schlep by bus. Even better, one day Ricardo came home with a set of new boots. “He had a dream of playing football himself and I guess he was living it vicariously through me,” Fabinho reflects. “When he bought them, he hid the purchase from my sister, because she’d have gone mad — it wasn’t the kind of thing they could afford.”
Later, Ana Paula and Ricardo, who now works in real estate, uprooted to spend two years living with him in Monaco and their support was vital to Fabinho’s success in Ligue 1. His previous year in Europe, with Real Madrid, was afflicted by homesickness and he made just one appearance, as a substitute in a 6-2 win under Jose Mourinho, but he was young: 19 when he arrived from Fluminense and 20 when he left for Monaco.
Now 25, Fabinho still misses Campinas but “homesickness, I’ve learnt to overcome. I’m also married nowadays, which helps, and I’m a calm guy.” He and Rebeca are enjoying Liverpool, its life, its people, the Brazilian restaurants they’ve found, and their comfortable home in Woolton. The teething issues were entirely football ones.
He played in all Liverpool’s nine pre-season games but “I knew when I joined I might have to wait because Liverpool had so many quality options already in midfield. I wanted to play earlier but I had to work hard. I was strengthening my body because in the Premier League it’s a different game, the physicality is different.
“Klopp wanted me to adapt, get acquainted with teammates and become used to the second-nature things players in a system like his should be doing. The coaching staff would show me pictures or videos of what I could improve — and there were many things.”
He’s still making those improvements, and important to the process is Klopp’s No 2, Pep Lijnders, with whom he can talk in Portuguese. The gym programme centres around strengthening his thighs and core without adding muscle weight, to increase power and fitness without compromising one of Fabinho’s best attributes as a defensive midfielder — speed to the ball.
He’s not the only Klopp signing to require an extended adaptation. It has been suggested playing No 6 in Klopp’s system is peculiarly demanding, but Fabinho suggests not. “The role I have at Liverpool is similar [tactically] to Monaco,” he shrugs. “The difference is the intensity of the league. Midfielders need to play fast, think fast and be strong in the 50-50s.”
When Fabinho was finally ready to play 90 minutes, at home to Red Star Belgrade on October 24, he put every ounce of pent-up hunger and frustration into the performance. The stats — 18 duels won and 86 passes, almost a third of which were forward and 20 were in the final third. It was like, as if from a lab somewhere, Klopp had unleashed a newly-engineered gegenpressing machine.
Fabinho impressed on that Premier League debut (v Cardiff) but his next display, against Arsenal, was mixed, featuring tackles, interceptions and 12km of ground covered but also two careless losses of possession. “The three games I started were intense experiences for me,” he says. “Against Arsenal I was disappointed with the balls I lost in midfield because when you lose possession against a team like that it can prove fatal. When I had the ball I could have been faster. Without it I did well, but I need to lose it less.”
He’s not a jogo bonito Brazilian, but from the country’s other, gnarlier tradition: the Gilberto Silva one of producing hardened pros. The Under Pressure podcast, which provides superb analysis of Liverpool’s pressing, has Fabinho with so far the highest possession-wins per 90 minutes of any player in Klopp’s time. “One of the reasons Liverpool wanted me is my ability to tackle, win the ball back and put pressure on the opposition,” he says. “I hope I can continue to show those strengths.
When I wasn’t playing the fans had a great attitude towards me. They sent many messages, encouraging me to carry on, and this inspired me. So I am grateful to the fans here. I want to repay them on the pitch.”
jonathan northcroft, football correspondent
His English is among those things Fabinho is still working on, but he smiles at the word and for the only time in our interview speaks without the interpreter. “Brother. Yes, like brother,” he says. We’re talking about Ricardo, his sister’s husband and somebody who, if this Brazilian comes good, will have Liverpool’s gratitude.
It was Ricardo who bought a young Fabio Henrique Tavares his first proper boots. Ricardo who drove him to games and training. Ricardo who gave up work to live in Monaco and help Fabinho’s European career take off. And it’s Ricardo who is the sounding board during an adaptation period with Liverpool that has been “really horrible” at points.
Signed for £39.3m, plus £5m add-ons, in May, Fabinho had to wait until October 27 for his first Premier League start, even finding himself omitted from matchday squads as he strove to get physically and tactically ready to play for Jurgen Klopp. “When you’re left out of the squad it’s horrible,” he says. “But whenever people asked, I never complained and said it was a matter of hard work and patience and I’ve tried to show these things. Although it’s sad when you’re not picked, I’ve never lost confidence or doubted my ability. I’ve always believed in myself — that I can bring a lot to the team.”
Now that he’s beginning to play and have an impact, he has family to thank. His mum, who continually messages, his dad, “my No 1 fan,” his wife, Rebeca, “who is always with me, and knows when I’m angry and when I don’t want to talk.” He smiles, “they are always my support.”
And Ricardo most of all. Every week, whether he had played or not, “I always talk to Ricardo and he is very wise. He sees things in an objective way and talks, not without emotion, but calmly. He never played at this level but he understands and helps a lot.”
Raised in Campinas, a city of 1.1m lying at altitude amid the subtropical forests north of Sao Paulo, Fabinho did not have the ragged favela childhood of Brazilian footballer cliche. He lived with his parents and two older sisters “in a good apartment. We were not a rich family — I’d say we were a humble one — but we never lacked for anything.”
His dad worked at various jobs to support his kids: in a railway station, a school, as a bricklayer, as a security guard. His mum was employed by a utilities company and his sisters were teaching assistants. Ricardo started dating one, Ana Paula, and soon started going to Fabinho’s youth games.
He had a car, meaning Fabinho no longer had to schlep by bus. Even better, one day Ricardo came home with a set of new boots. “He had a dream of playing football himself and I guess he was living it vicariously through me,” Fabinho reflects. “When he bought them, he hid the purchase from my sister, because she’d have gone mad — it wasn’t the kind of thing they could afford.”
Later, Ana Paula and Ricardo, who now works in real estate, uprooted to spend two years living with him in Monaco and their support was vital to Fabinho’s success in Ligue 1. His previous year in Europe, with Real Madrid, was afflicted by homesickness and he made just one appearance, as a substitute in a 6-2 win under Jose Mourinho, but he was young: 19 when he arrived from Fluminense and 20 when he left for Monaco.
Now 25, Fabinho still misses Campinas but “homesickness, I’ve learnt to overcome. I’m also married nowadays, which helps, and I’m a calm guy.” He and Rebeca are enjoying Liverpool, its life, its people, the Brazilian restaurants they’ve found, and their comfortable home in Woolton. The teething issues were entirely football ones.
He played in all Liverpool’s nine pre-season games but “I knew when I joined I might have to wait because Liverpool had so many quality options already in midfield. I wanted to play earlier but I had to work hard. I was strengthening my body because in the Premier League it’s a different game, the physicality is different.
“Klopp wanted me to adapt, get acquainted with teammates and become used to the second-nature things players in a system like his should be doing. The coaching staff would show me pictures or videos of what I could improve — and there were many things.”
He’s still making those improvements, and important to the process is Klopp’s No 2, Pep Lijnders, with whom he can talk in Portuguese. The gym programme centres around strengthening his thighs and core without adding muscle weight, to increase power and fitness without compromising one of Fabinho’s best attributes as a defensive midfielder — speed to the ball.
He’s not the only Klopp signing to require an extended adaptation. It has been suggested playing No 6 in Klopp’s system is peculiarly demanding, but Fabinho suggests not. “The role I have at Liverpool is similar [tactically] to Monaco,” he shrugs. “The difference is the intensity of the league. Midfielders need to play fast, think fast and be strong in the 50-50s.”
When Fabinho was finally ready to play 90 minutes, at home to Red Star Belgrade on October 24, he put every ounce of pent-up hunger and frustration into the performance. The stats — 18 duels won and 86 passes, almost a third of which were forward and 20 were in the final third. It was like, as if from a lab somewhere, Klopp had unleashed a newly-engineered gegenpressing machine.
Fabinho impressed on that Premier League debut (v Cardiff) but his next display, against Arsenal, was mixed, featuring tackles, interceptions and 12km of ground covered but also two careless losses of possession. “The three games I started were intense experiences for me,” he says. “Against Arsenal I was disappointed with the balls I lost in midfield because when you lose possession against a team like that it can prove fatal. When I had the ball I could have been faster. Without it I did well, but I need to lose it less.”
He’s not a jogo bonito Brazilian, but from the country’s other, gnarlier tradition: the Gilberto Silva one of producing hardened pros. The Under Pressure podcast, which provides superb analysis of Liverpool’s pressing, has Fabinho with so far the highest possession-wins per 90 minutes of any player in Klopp’s time. “One of the reasons Liverpool wanted me is my ability to tackle, win the ball back and put pressure on the opposition,” he says. “I hope I can continue to show those strengths.
When I wasn’t playing the fans had a great attitude towards me. They sent many messages, encouraging me to carry on, and this inspired me. So I am grateful to the fans here. I want to repay them on the pitch.”
