Fabinho admitted that the Liverpool squad felt “fatigue” as they battled for a 1-0 win over Fulham, with the clean sheet key as they “suffered together”. After the chaos of Sunday’s 4-3 triumph over Tottenham, it was a quieter night at Anfield as Mohamed Salah’s penalty earned another three points. Remarkably, it was the first time the Reds had kept a clean sheet since the dull 0-0 draw with Chelsea on April 4 – six games previous – and only their second in the last 10 games. In his post-match press conference, Klopp admitted that Alisson was “touched” by a rare shutout, with Fabinho stressing its importance too. Fabinho told LFCTV: “Another good game from us. I think from the last game, we needed to be better, defensively more organised, press better, and I think we did this today. The first half was very good. I think the second half the team felt, a little bit, the fatigue. We played a lot of games, so that’s normal that we dropped a little bit the intensity. But at the end, we suffered together, we kept the clean sheet, which was really important. I don’t remember the last time we kept a clean sheet! So it was important for us and for Ali as well. We take it.”
Fabinho has started each of the last 12 games, but he has been one of few mainstays as Jurgen Klopp reshuffles his side, including three changes on Wednesday night. The No. 3 explained the importance of maintaining consistency despite these alterations – with it easier “when the team is winning”: “I’m really happy that the team has been really consistent in the last games, maybe the last six, seven games. This always gives confidence to us, to try different things. Today we had some changes in the team, but we still played good, we still played in the same way. We still played with the same intensity, we still created a lot of chances. It’s really important for us. I think for the players who came into the team today like Kostas, Darwin, it was really important for them to get more minutes and to really help us. So yes, I think when the team is winning and playing good it’s good for everybody. The team doesn’t really feel the different when you change one or two or even three players. We just have to keep going and try to win on Saturday as well.”
Giving it was a night game at home, it is no surprise few players took to Instagram to reflect on the victory straight after the final whistle. Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk were clearly both pleased, though, with the centre-back pair playing a key role in keeping that clean sheet. It is now five wins in a row for Liverpool and seven games unbeaten, with four fixtures remaining before the end of the season. Though their top-four hopes are decreasing as Newcastle and Man United keep picking up points, all they can do is win these final games and rely on failures elsewhere.