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Jurgen Klopp has explained young midfielder Fabio Carvalho’s absence from the Liverpool squad, revealing he is “not in a happy place”.
The 20-year-old was left out of Klopp’s squad that beat Everton 2-0 in the Merseyside derby on Monday night.
And With Diogo Jota, Virgil van Dijk and Roberto Firmino all returning from injury, the Portuguese youngster is likely to miss out again when his side travel to Newcastle United on Saturday evening.
Carvalho will have fond memories of when the two teams last met back in August, coming off the bench to score a dramatic injury-time winner at the Anfield.
However, he has fallen down the pecking order since then, playing just three minutes in the Premier League since the Reds’ 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in October, having started only eight games since his summer transfer from Fulham.
“He’s not in a happy place at the moment”
Whilst acknowledging the player’s talent, Klopp admitted Carvalho was “not in a happy place at the moment” following his lack of regular playing time.
“Fabio is a very young player and a big talent,” said the Liverpool boss. “He has played well for us in a couple of games. Now the situation is we have to make a squad and he couldn’t make the last one. That’s how it is.
“He hasn’t played too often because from my point of view we needed different skills when we started or when we changed during the games. That’s pretty much all.
“He did nothing wrong. He has improved a lot and developed a lot. He is a good kid and is in the middle of the group and the team and that’s all fine.”
Klopp added: “Obviously, he’s not in a happy place at the moment. You cannot see that on the pitch or when I see him. It’s not really obvious, but I can imagine because he’s a footballer he wants to play, and he didn’t play often enough.
“That cannot help a lot but that’s another thing in a long career that you have to go through. For me it looks in the moment that he takes it as good as is possible.”
