Assured Fabinho proves value to Liverpool as they reach semi-finals

When the question is asked of what has changed about this Liverpool side to turn them from a team of flatterers, not-quites and almost-theres into genuine contenders, two names are often given in response: Alisson and Virgil van Dijk.

That pair, at a cost of nearly £150million, have given Jurgen Klopp’s team a resilience, a backbone, the absence of which had previously held them back in fulfilling the potential their ludicrous attacking talents suggested they could reach.

In Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, Liverpool had an attacking trio that rivalled the most devastating in world football. They just did not have the spine to match.

Virgil van Dijk (left) and Alisson are often given as the reason for Liverpool’s improvement

The emergence of Fabinho in defensive midfield has also been crucial for Liverpool

Reduced to its most simplistic terms: Liverpool blew teams away, they struggled to grind them down.

Now, they can do both. That is why they are top of the Premier League in one of the greatest title races in history, and it is why they are now in the semi-finals of the Champions League.

But it is not just those two alone who have made a stark difference.

Meanwhile, going about his own business, unperturbed, undistracted by the wilderness around him, a £40m Brazilian adds another gritty dimension to this Liverpool side.

A little over 15 minutes had ticked by at the Estadio do Dragao when Fabinho nicked his toe in to win the ball then, with a swarm of blue-and-white shirts suddenly buzzing around him, he lumped the ball long into the channels. Sadio Mane hustled after it as Liverpool reset their shape. Danger averted.

The Brazilian produced a brilliant piece of play to see off the challenge of Yacine Brahimi

Five minutes later and Fabinho saw Porto winger Yacine Brahimi about to challenge him for the ball. Fabinho stepped across, dropped his shoulder, and with one movement sent Brahimi sprawling to the ground, spluttering and gesticulating at the referee while the man in red strolled out with the ball.

There is more to his game, too. Just before half-time, Fabinho clipped a pass over the top with the outside of his boot, calling the ball into Sadio Mane’s path. All it took was a lazy swing of his right leg.

Don’t forget he’s filled in at centre-back on occasion too, including in the first leg against Bayern Munich where Liverpool kept a clean sheet in the absence of Van Dijk.

It took until October for Jurgen Klopp to start Fabinho in a Premier League game

It’s an influence that has taken its time to develop, mind. Even after such a pricy move from Monaco in the summer, it took Fabinho until October to start a Premier League game. He started just one of Liverpool’s six group games in Europe. Fabinho admitted he needed to get used to English football.

He sure has now. Fabinho has started every one of the knockout rounds and 11 of the last 13 league matches.

For that very reason, it was a little surprising to see Fabinho not only start in Porto but then play all 90 minutes.

Klopp had made changes after all. ‘We expect a very intense game, we expect a hard-fighting Porto side, so we need to be ready for that,’ he had said beforehand. So he rested Naby Keita and Jordan Henderson.

Fabinho’s recent performances have been so impressive that even club captain and part of the furniture Henderson has realised he needs to adapt his own game to keep his place in the team.

Fabinho’s performances havew led to club captain Jordan Henderson adapting his game

With a title race of such ferocity on the horizon, you might have expected to Fabinho to have his feet up at the earliest opportunity. Especially, too, as his usual destructive energy dipped as the game went on.

He gave the ball away near the halfway line but looked unable to find the right gear for his legs and they ended up dragging behind him in pursuit of his attacker.

It was also over Fabinho’s shoulders that Eder Militao climbed to nod in Porto’s consolation.

Klopp will need Fabinho’s influence as well as that of those giants behind him to get his side over the line in the run-in – but he will need him at his sharpest.