When Liverpool picked up Fábio Carvalho from Fulham in 2022, it was clear that he was the exact kind of transfer that the Reds love to snap up. A young, talented starlet, undervalued (thanks to his contract situation), and someone who Jürgen Klopp could mold, he ticked all the boxes.
There were good moments in his debut season — a difficult one for Liverpool overall — but he never quite nailed down a regular place. With a midfield overhaul coming in the summer that followed, it was unlikely that would happen for him in his second year, and so a loan — to German side RB Leipzig — was sanctioned.
But Carvalho has played in just seven out of Leipzig's 12 matches so far. He has only played for 118 minutes in the Bundesliga (the vast majority during his only start, against Borussia Mönchengladbach) and is yet to feature at all in Europe.
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"He is a challenger; this is what his position was [always going to be]," Leipzig journalist Guido Schäfer, who was a teammate of Klopp's at Mainz, tells Liverpool.com. "And he fights [for a place in the team] against very good players in his position: Xavi Simons, Emil Forsberg, Christoph Baumgartner and Dani Olmo.
"He was in the team from the beginning when they won 1-0 in Gladbach and I wrote an article about Carvalho — it was a good performance. He has only had a few minutes since but I spoke with some people and also one official at Leipzig and they told me Carvalho was very, very well-known player there and also a sympathisch [friendly] player and he is giving everything in each training session.
"He has the normal training sessions but also some training sessions on his own and he is a strong worker. This way, he will reach more matches and more minutes. Marco Rose is a coach who looks exactly at how the players behave on the pitch and in the dressing room and Carvalho is very good in this way. He is a good player in each session and Rose will give him more minutes for sure."
One question when he was at Liverpool was where his best position on the field was. While Klopp has since used more attacking number eights — the role that Carvalho would appear most suited to — he was also trialed on the wing, but perhaps does not have the pace to play there in the way that Liverpool forwards like Luis Díaz do.
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"[Against] Gladbach, he played as a kind of number 10 and it is very difficult for a player in Leipzig," Schäfer continued. "They have to work in the defense and it is like in Liverpool: they have to work in many sides — forward, backward, offense, defense. If you are not practiced, it is not so easy to copy these performances and show the strengths in your body.
"He needs minutes to bring his best performance because every player needs to practice. But I am very positive, and I think he will get more minutes. When I see him, he is a lovely guy and a very good footballer."
As well as where to play him on the pitch, there were also a couple of question marks during his time at Anfield about whether Carvalho was physical enough just yet to make a full impact. That remains the case so far in the Bundesliga, but he is improving.
"I think he needs one or two kilos more muscles," Schäfer said. "In the beginning against Gladbach, he played like a youth player for 10 minutes: only technique. After 10 minutes or 15 minutes, he showed some tackles and using his body and he is learning the system.
"It is too early to say [whether Leipzig would like to keep Carvalho beyond this season] but he is a young guy in a new league, with new players and a new language. But I think he has everything inside his brain and his body to be a very good player.
"I asked Leipzig if it was possible that he would leave in the winter and they said, 'No, he will stay'. He is working hard and this is the most important thing. He is fighting for his chance."
Right now, it is clear that Carvalho is on the fringes of Leipzig's squad, but there is scope for that to change as he continues to adapt and work hard. Off the field, there is no question mark about his attempts to make himself an important part of Rose's team.
Across the course of this season, given the competition for places at Anfield — led, arguably, by summer signing from the Bundesliga side, Dominik Szoboszlai — Carvalho's development should be better off in Germany than it would have been staying at Liverpool and fighting for a spot. Leipzig faces Red Star Belgrade later today in the Champions League, where perhaps he can take the next step.