Fabio Carvalho at Liverpool: 'Not speaking' to Jurgen Klopp and 'ducking the competition'
Fabio Carvalho has endured a difficult start to life at Brentford since joining from Liverpool last summer, but his struggles began long before
Fabio Carvalho was accused of shying away from competition before starting to his career at Brentford. The young talent, who transferred from Liverpool to Brentford last summer in a deal potentially worth £27.5million, has had limited playing time under Bees' boss Thomas Frank.
Carvalho has only clocked up 420 minutes of Premier League football, scoring one goal and assisting another, and has managed just two consecutive starts so far in the 2024/25 campaign. Despite shining in Liverpool's pre-season under Arne Slot, the former Fulham star was deemed surplus to requirements at Anfield, a situation he also found himself in under Jurgen Klopp.
Even though Klopp was instrumental in bringing Carvalho from Fulham to Anfield in 2022, he struggled to secure a spot for him following his debut season where he scored two goals in 23 games, including a memorable 98th-minute winner in a 2-1 victory over Newcastle.
However, that was the highlight for the Portugal-born forward who found it hard to get game time with Klopp favouring the likes of Luis Diaz, Darwin Nunez, Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota, and Cody Gakpo as part of his attacking line-up.
Carvalho's lack of action resulted in a loan move to RB Leipzig a year after signing for the Merseyside club. Upon joining the Bundesliga team, the attacking midfielder surprised fans by admitting that he rarely speaks to the former Liverpool boss.
He told the Athletic: "I don't really speak to him, so he didn't give me any advice. I have to just learn as I go and I don't think that's a bad thing. I feel like that's better anyway, for me to mature as a person and as a player."
Despite RB Leipzig being known for nurturing young talents, the experience was unfruitful for Carvalho who couldn't notch up a goal or an assist in 15 outings. His year-long loan was cut short when he switched to Championship club Hull City in January last year.
Leipzig's sporting director Rouven Schroder suggested the player's shortfall in Germany was a lack of competitive edge. Schroder said: "We consciously chose Fabio last summer.
"He had a great season with Fulham in the English second division, which is very physical. We said to ourselves: great talent, good age, has already gained his experience.
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"Still, you only get to know a player as an end product when he's there. Fabio has a great character. But he realised: 'OK, there's a competitor here, I have to do more'. And we noticed that he didn't want to face the competition."
It's currently unclear as to whether Carvalho will be involved when the Reds travel to the capital to face Brentford on Saturday January 18.