On Saturday, November 23, Fabio Carvalho sat in the away dugout at a cold Goodison Park and stayed there for much of Brentford’s goalless draw with Everton.
After getting zero minutes of game time in a lacklustre fixture, an account pertaining to belong to his father made a comment on a social media post, advising Carvalho to leave the west London club he joined from Liverpool for £27.5million ($35.3m) only three months ago: “Son you need to get out (of) that club,” it said.
The comment has since been deleted.
“I don’t know if it was his dad, I think you need to ask him,” Brentford manager Thomas Frank said on Friday. “I can only say I’m very pleased with Fabio. He is very happy here.
“I speak to him, of course, every day or every week. We talk about football or personal stuff. He is training well. He is in a good place and I think it is just a matter of time before we see him flourish even more. He has come into a good team, we are performing well, we are scoring a lot of goals so I’m very, very pleased with Fabio.”
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A week on from the 22-year-old’s return to Merseyside, where he moved to in July 2022 when he joined Liverpool from Fulham for £5million plus add-ons, Carvalho showed off a bright smile at full time following a 20-minute cameo in Brentford’s 4-1 victory over Leicester City. It was his 12th league appearance this season and ticked his tally of minutes above 300.
Carvalho was one of the first players to congratulate team-mate Kevin Schade — called “the shining star” by his manager. He was stretching near to the corner flag when Schade’s third goal went in and he ran without hesitation to embrace the 23-year-old forward.
After relocating to London from Portugal with his family as a child and coming through at Fulham’s academy, Carvalho is clearly itching to be given a similar star billing by his boss. But so far the attacking midfielder has struggled to displace a settled cast at Brentford.
Carvalho’s slow integration is down to the performances of Christian Norgaard, Vitaly Janelt, Mathias Jensen and Mikkel Damsgaard all being chosen ahead of him. Jensen, Norgaard and Janelt are also all members of the senior leadership group at Brentford.
Damsgaard, in particular, is having his best season since he joined the club in 2022. He pulled the strings against Leicester and his pre-assist for the first goal and assist for the third were of “the highest international level”, according to Frank.
No team in the league has more points at home than Brentford (19), either. They are the first team to score 20-plus goals in front of their own fans this season; the earliest in a Premier League campaign they have managed it.
Among the other regular starters is Yoane Wissa, who scored his eighth goal of the season in grabbing the equaliser after 25 minutes against Leicester. It was the forward’s seventh goal at the Gtech Community Stadium and no player in the league boasts more home goals this season.
Igor Thiago, Brentford’s record signing after arriving in the summer from Club Brugge for €36.5million (£31.2m; $46.1m), is therefore in the same position as Carvalho. He has Wissa, Bryan Mbeumo and now Schade to contend with.
Perhaps Carvalho’s best opportunity to get into the team on a more permanent basis will be when Thiago does. Thiago can be the big centre-forward who holds the ball up and Carvalho can bounce off him creatively.
Frank knows Carvalho can serve as a left winger, midfielder, a traditional No 10 playmaker or a secondary striker in multiple formations. Carvalho needs to find a permanent home in the team but will need to use his variety skillset to force his way in wherever he can.
His cameo at the end of a dominant team display against Leicester showed promise. He had a shot saved shortly after coming on, he took care of the ball and proved a wriggly customer for defenders already out on their feet. But, as Frank mentioned on Friday and repeated on Saturday, the attacking roster are mostly fit and are really firing. It is therefore going to be hard for Carvalho to break in when Brentford, now up to seventh, are so free-scoring — particularly at home.
It was a similar story during his time at Anfield, where Carvalho struggled to become a regular starter under Jurgen Klopp. He played 21 times in a number of roles in midfield and on the wing during his first and only full playing season at Liverpool in 2022-23. With 11 of his 13 Premier League games arriving before December 2022, a dream move soon went awry.
The following season he was shipped out on loan to RB Leipzig before returning to England after 15 appearances. He then spent the latter half of last season at Championship side Hull City, where he started 20 league games and was involved in 11 goals (nine goals, two assists). It was a spell that served as a reminder of who he can be.
Another thing he needs to continue to show is patience. Moving clubs is an option but not always the right solution. Breaking in at Brentford is going to be hard, just as it was at Liverpool. But Carvalho has to relish the challenge as much as his manager does when slotting his team together.
“I’m very happy for that question,” Frank said when asked to assess Carvalho’s involvement against Leicester. “I thought he did very well. I think again the basic, the foundation, is the defensive work and he worked unbelievably hard. I thought he found some good space between the lines. He got on the half-turn and was driving forward and creating opportunities. It just shows we have another very, very exciting player there that hopefully can also come into the team soon.”
(Top photo: Stephanie Meek/CameraSport via Getty Images)
