Former Chelsea full-back Scott Minto has slammed Fabinho's form and joked that it is 'like his twin brother is playing'.
Fabinho was notably out of sorts again on Saturday night as Liverpool slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the hands of relegation-threatened Leeds United. It was the Whites ' first win in eight games and ended an unbeaten home league run of 18-months for the Reds.
Jurgen Klopp's side handed Leeds an early lead when Joe Gomez and Alisson Becker mixed up to allow Rodrigo an open goal, and despite Mohamed Salah's swift equaliser, the hosts failed to push on and eventually fell to defeat with an 89th-minute Crysencio Summerville finish.
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Liverpool saw chances come and go, but usual problems were once again laid bare as Jesse Marsch's aggressive Leeds team swarmed the midfield and countered with devastating pace. Brenden Aaronson covered more than 13km of the Anfield turf, and the American spent much of the evening ghosting past Fabinho with concerning ease. And while Minto believes the hangover from last season's exploits is partly to blame, he singled out Brazilian for another woeful performance.
Speaking on talkSPORT , the pundit said: “It was the worst possible start and I think that it goes back to last season because think how close they came to winning the quadruple, something that no-one has ever done. They played in every game possible and you cannot begin to understand how much physically and mentally that will have taken out of them.
“In the Community Shield you see them against Manchester City and they were excellent and you think that they’re going to be right on it again. Injuries have definitely played their part, but to carry on playing in the way that Liverpool have played is hard.
“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.”
Liverpool got off to the worst possible start on Saturday when Gomez stabbed a blind pass back towards his own-goal. While it was meant for Alisson, the goalkeeper had drifted wide in order to ease the angle, and when he slipped trying to recover, Leeds striker Rodrigo reacted quickly to tap into an empty net. Opinion was divided among Reds fans as to who was at fault, and while Minto acknowledged Gomez's mistake, he pointed the finger at Virgil van Dijk for being far too slow to react.
“Gomez will get a lot of stick because he’s the obvious one, but Virgil van Dijk has to expect that there will be a mistake and think of the worst-case scenario," Minto added. "He’s not even looking when Gomez miskicks the ball and Rodrigo is half-a-yard ahead of him in a race that Van Dijk should be winning.
“He’s got to think about that worst-case scenario and if Alisson actually shouts, even though Gomez hasn’t looked, you know there’s a voice in a certain direction where you don’t play the ball towards goal but to where Alisson actually was.
“It’s a number of things but it is Jurgen Klopp asking his players to play a certain way that is unsustainable for five, six, seven or eight years, where Pep’s (Guardiola's) style is if you get the right players in.”
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