Liverpool were thrashed 4-1 in their Premier League clash with Manchester City at the Etihad stadium earlier today and Jurgen Klopp will surely be massively disappointed with the performance his team put on.
The Reds looked uninspired and at times, uninterested in the meeting with their former title rivals, but the scoreline would've come as no surprise to the Anfield faithful following a season full of lacklustre displays from the Merseysiders.
Liverpool's lack of effort was reflected massively in their overall statistics throughout the game with just 31% possession, one shot on target, over 400 fewer accurate passes completed, and zero big chances created which ultimately led to the visitors being punished by Pep Guardiola's title-chasing side.
Indeed, the inevitable goal machine Mohamed Salah did secure the lead in the 17th minute with his sublime finish, however, the rest of his team did not look to be up to the occasion and carelessly allowed the Egyptian's strike to become a consolation prize when the final whistle was blown.
It way one-way traffic as Manchester City cut through Liverpool's midfield and defence like butter on many occasions with Trent Alexander-Arnold's position, in particular, being exploited over and over again which led to BT Sport commentator Darren Fletcher claiming that the right-back was "dominated" by Jack Grealish.
However, luckily for the boyhood Liverpool ace there weren't many other players who offered much better over their individual performances, with midfielder Fabinho also struggling to make a positive impact and ultimately became the villain at the Etihad.
How did Fabinho get on vs Manchester City?
The £180k-per-week midfielder has been a shadow of his former self over the season so far and has often come under scrutiny for his drop-off in quality in the centre of the pitch and today's display was another sobering realisation that Fabinho may never return to his once-influential presence.
Over his 90-minute performance, the Brazilian dud – dubbed "criminal" against Man City by Kenn Leandre – was dribbled past three times, lost six duels and conceded two fouls, proving that he lacked focus and caused more problems than he solved over the fixture.
The former Monaco man – who earned a lowly 6.2 match rating, as per Sofascore – was also the subject of criticism from GOAL's Neil Jones, with the journalist stating that the 29-year-old 'looked a yard off the pace throughout'.
These horrendous midfield performances have been nothing new for Fabinho and pundits have been bewildered by his rapid decline with former Chelsea full-back Scott Minto claiming earlier this season:
"You talk about (Jordan) Henderson, yes, but you talk about Fabinho at the moment. Who is he at the moment? I don’t know who he is, it’s like his twin brother playing at the moment. He’s certainly not the player that he has been in recent years."
With that being said, it puts a huge question mark over Fabinho's future at Anfield if FSG are willing to heavily reinvest and refresh the midfield this summer but there is no doubt something needs to change and fast.
