Press conferenceFabinho talks 10-goal target, Trent potential and Inter task
Fabinho stated his belief he can reach 10 goals for the season as he previewed Tuesday's Champions League clash with Internazionale.
The Liverpool No.3 spoke to the media this afternoon ahead of the second leg of the last-16 tie, which the Reds lead 2-0 following victory in Italy last month.
During his press conference, Fabinho fielded questions on his scoring target for the remainder of 2021-22, the impact of January signing Luis Diaz, the talent of Trent Alexander-Arnold and the task against Inter tomorrow night.
Read a summary of the conversation below…
On his goalscoring this season, what has made the difference and whether he can reach double figures…
The difference is now I am more often in the opposition box for set-pieces; before in the set-pieces I was always the last man to stop the counter-attack. Now the coach gave me more confidence and put me more in the box and I am scoring goals. It’s good for me and for the team as well. I didn’t think too much about targets, to score 10 goals or more goals. I think in all competitions I have six goals so if I can score double digits, if I can score 10, it would be very good for a defensive midfielder. The team scores a lot of goals and when a team scores a lot of goals, players like me and other defenders really have a chance to score as well. I think I can achieve this.
On external discussion about Liverpool’s chances of winning four trophies this season…
First of all, it was really good for us – for the club – to win the Carabao Cup. [It’s] the first competition possible to win in the season, so we are very happy with this win. The way we won this cup was special as well for everyone. When you play well, when you already win one trophy, I think that’s normal – more for the media – that everyone talks about ‘Liverpool can win four trophies’. I’m not thinking too much about this. We are thinking game after game because it’s really hard to win two or three competitions, or even four. It’s really hard. After the Chelsea game it was hard to recover because it was a really hard game, we played 120 minutes and it was hard to recover for the next games. But the players who played against Norwich and West Ham played really well, so we won both games. We are still alive in the FA Cup and in the fight in the Premier League. We have to play game after game. Of course, we play at a big club like Liverpool and we want to win everything. But let’s, tomorrow, try to win the Inter Milan game and then we have to focus game after game.
On how dangerous Inter are in this tie…
Inter Milan are a really good team. I said before, for me, in the last two or three years they are the best Italian side. I don’t know if they are first in Serie A this season but they are playing really good football. The first leg, the first half of the game they played better than us, they had a good chance to score with a ball against the bar. But we were more ruthless in front of the goal, we scored two goals.
Inside Milan: Inter 0-2 Liverpool
A big team have to win games like this as well, when you don’t have too many chances to score you have to score the chances you have. That’s what we did in the first game and tomorrow, we will play at a full Anfield so the fans will be behind us. We have to try to give everything, being the highest level of intensity, of concentration, to not give confidence to them. We have to do what we do usually here at Anfield: play our best football and try to [finish] this game as quick as possible, if we can.
On whether the squad is stronger now than when the Reds won the Champions League and Premier League…
Maybe, yes, because we have more time playing together, we know each other. Of course, we lost some players, some important players. Gini Wijnaldum was a really important player who won the Champions League and the Premier League with us. We lost other important players as well: Shaqiri, Lovren. But I think when you play four or five years together, that’s normal. You play better, some things are more automatic. So I think because of the time playing together, the time with the manager and the technical staff, [it] makes us better.
On Diaz’s impact since signing for the club…
He’s really impressive. He has been here one month, a month-and-a-half and is playing on a really high level. He was really important in the final as well; for me, he was one of the best players in the final against Chelsea. I think the final was only his third game maybe with us, so he’s really impressive. He is really good. It’s not always easy to play at a high level when you change country and change league, he was not used to the intensity of England but he looks like he was playing here a long time because he is playing really well and has been really impressive.
On whether Alexander-Arnold has ‘changed the game for the modern full-back’…
Yes, Trent is really important for us. Not just with the assists but in the game, when he has the ball he is really important. He always can find a pass in between the lines. Sometimes we think he doesn’t have a solution and he always finds an important pass. Of course, in the last part of the pitch he can always change the game, he can always find an assist. And 16 assists is really impressive for a right-back. We still have three or four months to play, so this number will be high. When I see Trent play, it is really hard to find a right-back who plays like this, who looks more like a No.8 or a No.10 than a right-back. But I hope he will continue playing like this, to playing at a high level because he can be one of the best right-backs in history, maybe the best. Hopefully he will keep playing like this.