The Brazilian midfielder turned in a star performance as Jurgen Klopp's side beat Tottenham at Anfield on Sunday
Jordan Henderson has hailed the influence of Fabinho at Liverpool and believes the Brazilian is the “perfect” embodiment of a modern-day No.6.
Fabinho was one of the Reds’ star performers as Jurgen Klopp’s side restored their six-point lead at the top of the Premier League with a 2-1 win over Tottenham on Sunday.
The former Monaco man was at his all-action best, snapping into tackles, breaking up play and setting the tone with his smart, incisive passing.
It was his clipped ball which brought about Liverpool’s equaliser, scored by Henderson, seven minutes into the second half, and after the game the captain paid tribute to his in-form team-mate.
“Fab has been excellent,” Henderson said. “[It was] another good performance from him, he’s so good in that position.
“I’ve played in that position for a while and it is a tough position. He’s perfect for it; he reads the game so well and breaks the play up and starts attacks off. He’s a fantastic player and he’s in great form. Hopefully that can continue.”
Henderson was glad to find himself on the scoresheet – his first Anfield goal since December 2015 – on a day when he was restored to the starting XI.
The England international knows that, with the likes of Naby Keita, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all making contributions in the past week, competition for midfield places is strong right now.
“We have got a lot of good midfielders and we’ve got different players that can do different things,” he said. “I suppose that’s good for the manager because it’ll depend on certain games and certain teams that we’re playing, and who fits that particular game.
“But I feel as though we’re all performing to a high level, and we’ve just got to continue pushing each other in training and in games.
“Ultimately, we all want the same thing, we all want to be successful and we all want to help each other. So it’s good for everyone to keep playing the way they have been.”
On his goal, Henderson added: “It was obviously nice to score and get us back in the game. I’m delighted to contribute but to get the win was obviously the most important thing so, overall, very pleased.
“I don’t really care who scores goals as long as we win. People will analyse and say we want more goals from midfield but ultimately if the forwards score the goals then what does it matter? As long as we win games, the midfielders can contribute in other ways throughout the game. It’s not always goals.
“Now and again it’s nice to get on the scoresheet, but for us it’s about performance, it’s about working together as a team, and it doesn’t matter who scores."
Victory over Spurs extended Liverpool’s unbeaten start to the season to 10 games, and their unbeaten run at Anfield to an incredible 45 league games. They were, however, forced to do it the hard way having trailed to Harry Kane’s first-minute effort. Henderson’s second-half leveller was then topped off by Mohamed Salah’s winner from the penalty spot.
“We reacted really well, especially after conceding early,” added Henderson. “That was really pleasing.
“The performance was really good; their keeper pulled off a good few saves, to be fair. We were a little bit disappointed to go in behind at half-time but we said ‘keep going, keep doing the things we’ve been doing’ and thankfully we did that and got our rewards in the end.”
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