With Liverpool’s Champions League and Carabao Cup campaigns set to start, the Reds have to brace themselves to play matches in the midweek as well.
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Liverpool have started the new Premier League season decently, winning two of the three matches they have played so far. Currently, most of the players are with their national teams during the international break and this weekend, the domestic action will begin again. With Liverpool’s Champions League and Carabao Cup campaigns set to start, the Reds have to brace themselves to play matches in the midweek as well. Fabinho is already looking forward to the three-games-a-week rhythm. Sunday’s trip to Leeds United in the Premier League begins a run of seven important matches in 22 days for the Reds that includes the start of their Champions League and Carabao Cup games.
“It will be really intense, it will be tough. But we’re ready for this,” he told Liverpoolfc.com, with Anfield encounters against AC Milan and Crystal Palace to follow the Leeds meeting. “I didn’t go to the national team so it will be almost two weeks without playing, so I want to play again. I want to play in the Premier League and the Champions League. I’m excited for this moment, we will play each three days, so everyone needs to be ready. The manager will need every player. The mentality of the group is really good, everyone is ready for this, everyone is in good shape. So we’re very excited for this moment.”
Fabinho made his first competitive start of the new season in Liverpool’s 1-1 home draw with Chelsea – last game before the international break. Having trailed to the visitors in the first half, the Reds levelled just before the interval through Mohamed Salah’s penalty. Despite unable to make the most of the numerical advantage to get a winning goal in the second half, Fabinho felt that there were still positives to take from the performance. “I think it’s a good start,” said the Brazilian. “In the first two games we had two victories and that was important; an away win and then winning the first game at home as well.
“Then the third game we played against Chelsea – one of the strongest teams in the league, the European champions – so it was a hard game but I think we played really well, we played a really good game. We didn’t win the game but there were a lot of positive things about this game. It will be hard this season, a lot of teams are really strong. We will often have tough games like that but we are ready for this.”
With Liverpool set to play Marcelo Bielsa’s side next, Fabinho acknowledged the difficulty of the task awaiting the Reds on Sunday. “Leeds are a really intense team, a really good team. We played there last year without supporters and without fans in it was really tough. It was a tough game, it was 1-1,” he said.
“We know their qualities and I think with the fans it will be something more for them. But, as I said, almost all the games are hard and tough in the Premier League. We want to go there and win the game.”
“This atmosphere sometimes helps us as well, even if it’s an away game. When the crowd is really participating in the game, this is good for the spectacle, so we like these types of games. It’s not easy to play against a team like Leeds but we have to be ready for everything.”
