Fabio Carvalho was a day short of four months without a Premier League appearance when brought on at Bournemouth, but only played two minutes.
Liverpool were desperately seeking a late equaliser at Dean Court when, having already sent on Diogo Jota, Roberto Firmino, Jordan Henderson and James Milner, Jurgen Klopp turned to Carvalho.
After an embrace from the manager and some words of encouragement in the ear, the 20-year-old replaced Stefan Bajcetic with 88 minutes on the clock.
Carvalho effectively took up a midfield role and, to his credit, he demanded the ball at every opportunity, but unsurprisingly ended the 1-0 defeat having touched it only four times.
It was a strange situation, with the youngster having been rotated in and out of the squad in recent weeks as part of a peripheral group along with Curtis Jones, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Arthur.
And it was certainly a questionable decision from Klopp, who saw fit to leave Carvalho unused throughout the 7-0 saunter over Man United the previous weekend.
Instead, the manager turned to a player whose last league appearance was a three-minute cameo in the 3-1 win over Southampton on November 12 to try and salvage a point at Bournemouth.
Liverpool fans watching on were left confused by Klopp’s approach to Carvalho, who last started in the league in the 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest on October 22
It's a footnote on today's result, but not a fan of sending Fabio Carvalho to play two minutes at 1-0 down after going four months without a PL game.
A lot of the situation is behind closed doors but four touches of the ball are hardly going to improve his confidence.
— Jack Lusby (@LusbyJack) March 11, 2023
Feel for Carvalho, waited 8 weeks just to come on in the 88th minute and barely touched the ball.
— Samuel (@SamueILFC) March 11, 2023
Carvalho is coming on for Bajceitc. Feels like a desperate roll of the dice, this.
— Paul Gorst (@ptgorst) March 11, 2023
Some of Klopps man managing decisions are disgraceful. Bringing on Fabio Carvalho for the first time since November for 3 minutes when chasing a win. That’ll do his confidence the world of good?? Absolutely shocking performance #LIVBOU
— Luke (@EireLuke21) March 11, 2023
Fabio Carvalho had a brief cameo yesterday and that is not surprising, as the whole game had the “Madrid on my mind” written over it. Arrogance, self confidence bf divided mindset before the goal.
— Olakunle (@dec19_signature) March 12, 2023
I’m honestly not sure why we signed Fabio Carvalho.
Doesn’t suit our system, has no real fixed position and Klopp doesn’t seem to fancy him. Confidence must be shot too. I feel for him.
— Laurie (@LFCLaurie) March 11, 2023
Of course, there could be more to this story, but earlier in the campaign, Carvalho was flourishing as a confident impact player, including consecutive goals against Bournemouth and Newcastle.
The late, late winner against Newcastle in August led to a run of starts, but Liverpool’s ailing form and his struggle to nail down a position has restricted him to the FA Cup and Carabao Cup since that loss at Forest.
Hopefully, with his outing on Saturday, things are on the turn for Carvalho.
But with only 12 crucial games left in the league this season – and Wednesday’s decider at Real Madrid – the opportunities could be few and far between.
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