Patience has paid off, says Fabinho

Fabinho says patience was required to find his feet at Liverpool, but he is now reaping the rewards.

The Brazilian midfielder moved to Anfield last summer, with huge expectations of him when he arrived.

Viewed as one of Europe’s best defensive midfielders, he was supposedly the man to fill almost a decade-long void left by Javier Mascherano.

Fabinho struggled to get going early on, though, leading to doubts about his quality moving forward.

He found himself out of the team regularly, not making his first Premier League start until October.

The former Monaco man has adjusted to life in England as the months have passed, however, and he is now an undisputed key man for the Reds.

Speaking to the Telegraph, the 25-year-old discussed the importance of being patient and biding his time:

I still have things to improve but I am happy overall with my performances.

I am up to the speed of the Premier League and that was what I was looking for. If it was up to me I would have been playing from the beginning.

Maybe Jurgen could see something I couldn’t see, so not just conversations with him but all the staff helped me.

I had patience to wait for my opportunities.

Fabinho could revert to a centre-back role when Liverpool face Bayern Munich in the Champions League next Tuesday, with Joel Matip likely to be the only available central defender.