Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was somewhat critical of Fabinho's performance against Arsenal, even though side ran out comfortable 5-1 winners at Anfield.
The Reds fell behind to an early goal from Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles, but bounced back in some style to extend their unbeaten start to the Premier League to 20 games, where they now top the table by nine points.
And despite Klopp being pleased with numerous elements of his side's performance, he did admit that his team fell short of the standards expected of them in some areas - admitting that £43m signing Fabinho had looked edgy in midfield against the Gunners.
"Fabinho hit two very average passes and he was shaky in the next couple of moments. That can happen – it’s all part of the process," Klopp told BBC's Match of the Day.
‘Football is a game full of mistakes and it’s how you deal with it. Then we could bring Jordan Henderson on and he was so fresh. Arsenal didn’t have a lot of chances but that allowed us to close all the space in midfield."
Liverpool's December: P 8 W 8 D 0 L 0 Scored: 23 Conceded: 3
— James Pearce (@JamesPearceEcho) December 29, 2018
Everton 1-0
Burnley 3-1
Bournemouth 4-0
Napoli 1-0
Man United 3-1
Wolves 2-0
Newcastle 4-0
Arsenal 5-1#LFC 👌
Klopp added his belief that Liverpool could have done more to control the game, though he refused to single out Dejan Lovren for criticism after his slack lofted pass inadvertently led to Arsenal opening the scoring against the early run of play.
"Again, we could have controlled the game even better with really big respect to Arsenal, they still had the high formation and they knew where they have to defend us because we didn’t move that good in between the lines so we had not a lot of options," Klopp added, as quoted by Liverpool's official website.
"Dejan Lovren, ball right, everybody shouts him [but] nobody is moving anymore. Also he tries to play the ball in behind and we follow that ball, run a lot, lose it there, run a lot - it was not necessary. It was not Dejan’s fault, nobody moved.
"He has the ball but nobody wants it. A lot of things we can do better but I really like that game because it was clear from the first second, from before the game, that it will be a big fight because Arsenal is a really good football team."
Liverpool's title credentials will really be put to challenge next time out, as the Reds take on title rivals Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Source : 90min