With Fabinho coming back, this is going to be a big and possibly season-defining decision for Klopp - do you stick with the partnership of Hendo and Kabak at CB and move Fabinho back to #6? Or move Hendo to midfield and start developing a Fabinho-Kabak partnership? It will be a difficult choice as there lots of pros and cons to both options.
Henderson-Kabak
Pros:
1. Hendo and Kabak already played 2 games together and there are signs of an emerging partnership. Comparing passing network diagrams from those 2 games you could see we’ve made an adjustment where Hendo became more of a covering defender and Kabak the more front-foot one, which suits both players better.
2. Henderson is a better “talker” which will be invaluable for guiding a young defender in a new league.
3. Fabinho patrolling the midfield at #6 will free up Thiago, Jones and others to help the attacking players more.
4. Henderson’s long passing from the back is a serious attacking weapon, which we’ve badly missed since losing VVD.
Cons:
1. Henderson is a weaker 1 on 1 defender than Fabinho. I recommend this Twitter thread for a detailed discussion of Hendo’s shortcomings at CB.
2. Henderson is not great in the air, so once teams start preparing for that particular partnership he’s going to be targeted in that area.
3. Obviously his drive and leadership is missed in midfield, in particular Trent will probably feel more secure venturing forward when Hendo is protecting and helping him at RCM.
Fabinho-Kabak
Pros:
1. Fabinho has been excellent at CB for most of the season, so it seems natural to return him to that position.
2. Frees up Hendo for midfield duty (see above).
Cons:
1. This will be yet another completely new partnership - at this point we just don’t know how well these 2 would be able to play alongside each other.
2. We will lose Hendo’s long passing from defense, which could result in more pressure and more mistakes as we play out from the back.
3. We won’t be able to play our best and most dominant DM in his best position.
Obviously there is also a third option of pairing Kabak with one of Phillips/Davies/Williams - I’m sure Klopp will give it a try in some easier games, but it’s clear that for bigger games he has more trust in one of the senior midfielders and will try to avoid playing 2 rookie CBs next to each other if at all possible. Some of you may disagree, but he obviously has good reasons for this - and if Kabak and say Phillips ever start against a strong opposition and get destroyed, everyone will instantly turn on them. Once again, I think Klopp will explore this option, but probably after Kabak gets more used to the league and the new players get some training time together.
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