Liverpool assistant coach Lijnders has compared the Liverpool midfield engine to the queen on the chessboard insisting that the club lost its engine when these guys had to play out of position.
Speaking about Fabinho to the club’s website, Lijnders said: “He just always puts the team above himself. In the same package you get someone who is only concerned about making the team better, there is no space for ego.
“He is a real team player. Luckily we have three of them, Gini and Hendo have this characteristic as well.
“Having two midfielders like that is like the queen in the chess game. You lose the queen, who defends in offence.
“You need two who can control a game by being dominant without the ball. That’s what we are searching for.”
“We didn’t lose only our last line (due to injuries to Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip); by losing our last line we lost our midfield as well,” Lijnders told Liverpool’s website.
“And that’s where we lost our engine, and that’s a big problem. It’s something that created doubt in many different tactical aspects.
“We always tried to find the solution, but the solution needs consistency, and that was the problem because there were always different and new problems coming and took the consistency away.
“He (Fabinho) has the capacity to make the players around him better. It’s really difficult to find players who have the talent to make the other ones flourish.”
See More:Â Liverpool Defender Transfer Targets: Latest Transfer News