Fabio Carvalho unused in Germany as Liverpool defender makes full debut

August 29, 2023
Jack Lusby

In three games so far for RB Leipzig, Fabio Carvalho has clocked just 18 minutes on the pitch, going unused entirely in their last outing.

Carvalho’s season-long loan move to Leipzig came on the back of Dominik Szoboszlai‘s switch in the opposite direction, and he was expected to take his spot.

But it has been a slow start for the Portuguese, with another temporary signing, Xavi Simons, preferred alongside Dani Olmo in the two attacking midfield roles.

Manager Marco Rose turned to Carvalho off the bench in 3-0 win over Bayern Munich in the DFL-Supercup and the 3-2 loss to Bayer Leverkusen which kicked off the Bundesliga campaign.

During Friday’s 5-1 thrashing of Stuttgart, however, the 20-year-old was overlooked entirely.

It was a late flurry from Leipzig as they battled back from 1-0 down to Wataru Endo‘s former side, with five goals scored between the 51st and 76th minutes.

Rose only turned to his bench at 5-1 up, though, with Emil Forsberg, Timo Werner, Benjamin Sesko, Christoph Baumgartner and Lukas Klostermann all brought on instead of Carvalho.

There was no sense of risk in sending Carvalho on, then, simply the young midfielder was not deemed a viable option.

Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, there was a full debut for Sepp van den Berg at Mainz, starting in a tough 1-1 draw with Eintracht Frankfurt.

Van den Berg had previously come off the bench against SV Elversberg and Union Berlin, but Sunday marked his return proper from an injury that forced him out of the U21 Euros.

Six other Liverpool loanees saw action over the weekend, too, with Harvey Davies, Owen Beck, Adam Lewis and Luke Hewitson playing the full 90 minutes.

Davies’ sixth consecutive start for Crewe Alexandra saw a clean sheet elude him again, a 1-0 defeat to Bradford making it 10 goals conceded so far.

Beck impressed in Dundee’s 1-0 victory over Hearts, while Lewis did similar as Newport County saw off Sutton United for a 3-1 win.

Hewitson was unable to follow up his heroics for Stalybridge Celtic earlier in the week as his side lost 3-2 to Avro FC.

Anderson Arroyo played 63 minutes as Andorra FC lost 3-0 to Amorebieta, while Dominic Corness made a brief cameo in Yverdon-Sport’s 4-1 victory over Servette.

James Balagizi and Jakub Ojrzynski were both unused, while Rhys Williams is not yet in contention for Aberdeen after injury and Calvin Ramsay remains out for Preston.