Liverpool forward is fighting for his future and may need January transfer

If Fabio Carvalho was frustrated by how his first season at Liverpool went, his loan move to RB Leipzig has gone even less to plan.

The Reds paid Fulham an initial £5m compensation fee, rising to £7.7m with add-ons, to sign the forward at the end of his Cottagers contract in the summer of 2022. Yet despite an encouraging start, scoring against both AFC Bournemouth and Newcastle United, the 21-year-old soon found himself on the fringes of Jurgen Klopp’s side.

He’d make 16 appearances before the mid-season World Cup in Qatar, starting just six times, only totalling up 520 minutes of senior action. Yet he’d play just five times following the return of club football, and featured for only 75 minutes in 2023 (66 of them came in a mid-January FA Cup third round replay win over Wolves).

Consequently, it was no surprise to see him depart Anfield on loan in the summer. And while RB Leipzig had wanted to sign him permanently, seeing a bid believed to be in the region of around £10m rejected, they instead settled on a season-long loan move instead.

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At the time, The ECHO understood that Liverpool were unwilling to entertain the idea of letting Carvalho leave on a permanent basis just 12 months into his career on Merseyside. Meanwhile, club sources were adamant that the forward’s best years remain at Anfield, with there a confidence that Leipzig would offer the best environment for him to start to fulfil the potential that made him one of the most coveted young players in Europe at the turn of 2022.

But having joined RB Leipzig at the end of June, the move is yet to work out for either player or both clubs. Now five months into his time in Germany, he is featuring even less in the Bundesliga.

The 21-year-old has featured for just 234 minutes across 10 appearances for his temporary club, starting just once in the Bundesliga and making one 15-minute substitute appearance in the Champions League. Meanwhile, a second round DFB-Pokal exit to VfL Wolfsburg last month has limited his opportunities further.

While it previously would not have been a surprise to see Leipzig try to persuade Liverpool into selling Carvalho permanently next year, should he have impressed in Germany, so far the evidence must leave their fans wondering why they were so keen to sign the forward in the first place.

In truth, he has not been helped by intense competition for places and the fact that the Bundesliga outfit, much like the Reds, don’t play with a number 10 - which remains his favoured position. Instead, his snippets of action have come on the flanks.

Liverpool have not been shy of recalling loanees mid-season when they have found game-time limited in the past, with the likes of Owen Beck, Rhys Williams and Billy Koumetio all recent examples. Whether they would do similar for Carvalho remains to be seen.

Yet it might be premature to write off his Leipzig career despite the slowest of starts. He does still appear to be making an impact behind the scenes in Germany, at least.

"He is a challenger; this is what his position was (always going to be)," Leipzig journalist Guido Schafer, who was a team-mate of Reds boss Klopp at Mainz, recently told our sister website Liverpool.com. "And he fights (for a place in the team) against very good players in his position: Xavi Simons, Emil Forsberg, Christoph Baumgartner and Dani Olmo.

"He was in the team from the beginning when they won 1-0 in Gladbach and I wrote an article about Carvalho - it was a good performance. He has only had a few minutes since but I spoke with some people and also one official at Leipzig and they told me Carvalho was very, very well-known player there and also a sympathisch (friendly) player and he is giving everything in each training session.

"He has the normal training sessions but also some training sessions on his own and he is a strong worker. This way, he will reach more matches and more minutes. Marco Rose is a coach who looks exactly at how the players behave on the pitch and in the dressing room and Carvalho is very good in this way. He is a good player in each session and Rose will give him more minutes for sure."

Meanwhile, an opening will potentially present itself to Carvalho in the New Year with it reported that Forsberg is set to complete a January transfer to Leipzig sister-club New York Red Bulls.

The Sweden international has made 15 appearances so far this season, starting nine times. And while only four of those starts have come in the Bundesliga, he is currently a player ahead of Carvalho in the pecking order. Predominantly playing on the left, remove him and there is one less player the Liverpool loanee is vying with for starts and substitute action.

Of course, he’ll still be left competing with the aforementioned Simons and Baumgartner, as well as Olmo when he recovers from an ongoing shoulder injury that has ruled him out for the rest of 2023.

With Forsberg one of the oldest players in the Leipzig squad at 32 years of age, it’s plausible that the German outfit were always looking to a future beyond the Swede when targeting Carvalho.

Leipzig still have seven more matches before the German winter break, with their final game before Christmas taking place on December 19 away at Werder Bremen. They’ll then return to action at home to Eintracht Frankfurt on January 13 after a mid-season training camp, which will offer further opportunity to impress.

If the Liverpool loanee is still on their books at that point remains to be seen, while it is unclear if they retain interest in signing the player permanently. Yet with Forsberg closing in on an exit of his own, he has an extra reason to fight for his future in Germany.

After the most frustrating 18 months, Carvalho will be desperate to get the opportunity to make up for lost time.