Fabinho was ‘absolutely outstanding’ against Manchester United, says Klopp

The Brazilian’s display for Liverpool against Manchester United pleased his manager.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp praised midfielder Fabinho for an “absolutely outstanding” performance against Manchester United.

Xherdan Shaqiri’s second-half brace helped Liverpool past United 3-1 at Anfield on Sunday as they returned to the top of the Premier League table.

Alisson’s error had allowed Jesse Lingard to cancel out Sadio Mane’s opener in the first half, before Shaqiri delivered off the bench.

But Fabinho’s display pleased Klopp, who brought the Brazilian to Liverpool in the off-season.

“He was outstanding. Absolutely outstanding,” he told a news conference.

“But I don’t like these questions, the thing I don’t hear is that it says something about other players as well. I know you don’t mean it like this.

“On Tuesday, we played against Napoli one of the best games of the season, an outstandingly strong opponent, we played with [James] Milner,Henderson and [Georginio] Wijnaldum in midfield.

“That’s what I said. It’s the heart and soul of the game we need. And as long as we can make these changes, we will make these changes. That’s how it is. They have fresh legs and are fresh in the mind. Always they go for it.

“Then they have a game like Fabinho had, along with Gini fantastic, Naby [Keita] played so naturally smart in that half-space because it’s not easy to defend a winger and everybody is shouting, ‘Don’t stay there inside’ and stuff like that.

“Fabinho played at the highest level, that’s true.”

Shaqiri got the benefit of two deflections for his match-winning brace, with his first goal almost falling to Nathaniel Clyne, who was making his first league appearance of the season.

Klopp joked he was concerned the opportunity would fall to Clyne, whose last league goal came in February 2016.

“We were all a bit afraid that Clyney might shoot when Shaq came. If Clyney would have scored it would have been a real sensation,” he said.

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