Rival legend blames Reds star for role in Newcastle United’s opener

Rio Ferdinand identifies Fabinho as the reason for Newcastle’s opening goal against Liverpool

In Liverpool’s narrow 2-1 win against Newcastle United last night, the Reds had a tough task facing an in-form side. Liverpool were caught out multiple times on the counter, with Alexander Isak opening the scoring for the Magpies.

The new signing for Newcastle ran the show for them, making multiple runs tirelessly. On one occasion, the Magpies received the ball from an errant Trent Alexander-Arnold pass. The ball eventually ended up at Sean Longstaff’s feet, who played the ball through Fabinho for Isak to slot it past Alisson. Rio Ferdinand has stated why Fabinho was at fault for the same.

“You got to get out there but then you’ve got players filling in in there like Henderson and Fabinho to play their role. Fabinho comes out to it as he would do as a midfielder but without a centre-back, you have to play the centre-back role, he jumps out too soon and it’s an exquisite finish.”

It is very rare to see Fabinho commit a mistake as he has been one of the most consistent players for the club in the Jurgen Klopp era. This season though, he looks a bit off-colour and it might do him good to get a break from playing week-in and week-out.

Virgil van Dijk was covering Andrew Robertson’s position as the Scotsman pushed up the pitch in order to press. As a reason, the backline was skewed and Fabinho had to temporarily play the role of a centre-back. The Brazilian committed to the ball too soon, which opened up space behind him for Isak to run into and it was one of the best finishes from a visiting player at Anfield in the recent past.

Match Recap

Liverpool conceded a similar goal early this year against Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final. Except that the box wasn’t as crowded as it was against Newcastle. The Reds’ defence has been at the receiving end of major criticism, especially for conceding the first goal in nine of their last ten Premier League fixtures.

It took a herculean effort from the Reds to come back into the game, through a Roberto Firmino goal in the 61st minute. Isak found the back of the net before Liverpool equalised, but his goal was ruled out for offside.

Liverpool finally got the better of the Newcastle backline with Fabio Carvalho scoring from point-blank range. James Milner whipped the ball into the box from the corner. It was headed towards the goal by Joe Gomez, whose shot was blocked. It fell to Carvalho’s feet after a Mohamed Salah-headed attempt, and the 19-year-old rocketed the ball past Nick Pope.

Liverpool’s midfield problems have come out in the open too often this season. And to add salt to the wound, Jordan Henderson made his way off the pitch because of a hamstring issue. Liverpool’s injury list keeps on growing amidst rumours

More Liverpool News:

• Transfer News: Liverpool joins the race to sign Sheffield United midfielder Sander Berge
• Liverpool Transfer News: Jurgen Klopp admits to losing out on a midfielder this summer
• Romano: Liverpool are looking at multiple midfielders besides Konrad Laimer

Liverpool play Everton on Saturday, with Darwin Nunez returning from suspension. The Reds also have their first UCL game of this campaign, against Napoli on 8th September.