Fabinho taking 'big steps' towards Liverpool debut
Fabinho's wait for his Liverpool debut is likely to end soon after the international break.
The Brazil international has yet to feature competitively for the Reds following his summer switch from AS Monaco, with Jürgen Klopp fielding an unchanged team in the first three matches and making just a single change at Leicester City on Saturday.
The strength in depth available to the manager has meant no place in the matchday squad for Fabinho since the opening-weekend win over West Ham United.
But the midfielder has made significant progress in training, according to Klopp, and will be needed when Liverpool tackle a difficult run of fixtures later this month.
“The team is good and he needs time,” the boss said after the 2-1 victory at the King Power Stadium extended his side’s 100 per cent start to the season.
“He could have been in the squad, of course, but it’s quite difficult to make the squad at the moment because they are all fit.
“It’s good to have the situation as one might need a bit of time, or the others are more used to it. That’s the only reason.
“But he will come back. And now we have games every three days, and he has made big steps in the last few weeks. He could even play at the moment.”
The No.3 has since joined up with his country, alongside Reds teammates Alisson Becker and Roberto Firmino, for matches against United States and El Salvador.
“Hopefully now Fabinho has games with Brazil, and then after he comes back we have games, games, games,” added Klopp.
“We have the whole of September a lot of games, only against top teams. We need all of the players, that’s good.
“We have come through the period where it looked like we didn’t need all of them because we played quite a consistent line-up and the level in training was high. That’s all cool. Hopefully they all come back healthy as we have to use them all because of the number of games.”