Reports have surfaced this week suggesting that Liverpool have finally sealed a deal for exciting young Fulham attacker Fabio Carvalho. The same shouldn’t come as a huge surprise given that the Reds had tracked Carvalho for some time and nearly got a deal over the line for him on deadline day in January.
Paperwork issues meant that the deal fell through. However since then, he’s continued to impress playing for Marco Silva’s Fulham side, meaning it felt inevitable that he would at some stage make the proposed switch to Anfield. That now looks like it will happen in the summer, and many Liverpool fans are excited to see what the 19-year-old can bring to the club.
So far at Craven Cottage, Carvalho has usually played as a number ten within Silva’s favoured 4-2-3-1 formation. He’s thrived in the same thanks to his ability to find gaps in between the lines where he can receive passes on the half-turn and then look to drive at a defence or thread passes into the feet of forwards ahead.
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He’s registered seven assists so far, and has the second-highest combined Expected Assist (xA) total at Fulham behind only Liverpool loanee Harry Wilson - though the Welshman’s numbers are boosted by the fact he takes the bulk of his team’s set-pieces.
When Carvalho isn’t making chances for others, he’s usually fabricating them for himself and he can complement that assist total with an impressive eight goals of his own this season.
Although it’s easy to see why Liverpool would want to sign Carvalho based on his current ability and potential ceiling, it’s less obvious how he’d fit into Klopp’s current system. There is after all no natural spot for a number ten. However, there’s a logic behind the thought that he could be seen as a potential heir for Roberto Firmino.
While Carvalho has never played through the middle as a number nine, at Liverpool that centre-forward role shares more characteristics with a number ten than a traditional striker.
Of course, Jurgen Klopp may one day opt to change the formation, and if he does the good news is Carvalho does have the profile to thrive in other roles. For example, he could make use of his pace and trickery to play in a wider position or maybe operate deeper in the midfield, like a number eight.
Ultimately though, no matter which way this Liverpool team evolves, Carvalho looks to have the potential to play a starring role within it, and it’s easy to see why the club persisted in bringing him to Anfield.
