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Liverpool is still fighting for two major titles and for the first English treble since Manchester United in 1999. They are six points behind Manchester City, being one game behind them as well, and they have a massive lead coming into the second leg of the Round of 16 in the Champions League. They got the matchup with Inter Milan and won 2-0 at the San Siro. However, this is still the Champions League and Liverpool themselves know what can happen when a team believes they won the tie in the first leg. Thus, they will need a huge game on Tuesday to secure their place in the quarterfinals. Here is one player that should be Liverpool's X-factor in the Champions League round of 16, and it's not Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool X-factor – Fabinho
While conventional wisdom will say that the best player will always be the X-factor, it does not always hold to be true. Everyone is or should be aware of how great Mohamed Salah is. Liverpool winger has scored 27 goals in 32 apps this year and he is definitely one of the best, if not the best, players in the world. His partnership upfront with Sadio Mane is slowly becoming iconic, while the offensive additions Liverpool has made in recent time, with Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz will make sure they have a stable attacking threat, even if Mane and Salah fall off. However, this matchup specifically is a different beast.
Thus, the best player on the field for Liverpool, or at least the one to make the largest difference, will be Fabinho. The Brazilian midfielder is usually undervalued, as all central defensive midfielders are. Fans look for flair and beauty in football and there is not much of that in this position. Yet, no elite team is complete without a defensive midfielder that can hold the line and allow their teammates to push forward without much concern for the defensive side. This becomes especially true against teams with a strong midfield. Inter is one such team and thus the play-breaking play of Fabinho becomes so much more needed against a potent team like the Italian champions.
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The result of the first game is very misleading in many segments. Firstly, even if the game was going towards a Liverpool win, it probably should not have been 2-0 to end it. Arguably, Inter Milan was the better team for portions of the game and even hit the crossbar in the first half. Their two goals conceded came in late, with Firmino scoring in the 75th minute and Salah scoring in the 83rd. The first goal came at poor defensive coverage and Firmino being left to take a free header, while the second goal came with a confusing situation in the middle and a reflection. All of this came during a very poor Liverpool outing, where Inter fans likely feel they deserved more.
Yet, even in that poor outing, Fabinho dominated until he was replaced by Jordan Henderson in the 60th minute. He dominated an incredible Inter midfield with youngster Harvey Elliot and Thiago Alcantara helping him out. With all due respect to both, they are nowhere near the quality of some of the talent in that Inter midfield. Also, both are more attacking than defensive-minded, so that made Fabinho's job even rougher and his domination even more impressive. Liverpool will need the same in the return leg at Anfield.
As said multiple times here, the midfield of Inter Milan is great and is probably the reason why they won the 2021 Italian title. Now, in the return leg, they will be getting back Nicolo Barella, a player that played 14 out of the 16 possible games for Italy at the EURO 2020, a tournament that Italy won. He will be replacing an aging Arturo Vidal, who could not cope with the pace of the game, so Inter looks even better coming back into this game. Next to Barella, Inter will feature Hakan Calhanoglu and Marcelo Brozovic, both elite midfielders. Knowing Klopp, he will not back down from his game plan and include one more defensive midfielder to battle this. Thus, Liverpool and the midfield battle they need to win to secure a quarterfinals slot will rest almost solely on Fabinho.
Fabinho can do it and he has proven that time and time again. He has been a staple of the Liverpool midfield ever since he arrived from Monaco in 2018. He is not the most exciting or the player that will score 30 goals, but all football fans that know a bit more about the game know and see how valuable he is. Of course, all the fame will be carried by Mohamed Salah, Mane, Firmino, Jota, or Diaz, whoever scores the goals, but it will be goals built on the foundation laid by Liverpool X-factor, Fabinho.
