RB Leipzig sporting director Rouven Schroder has made scathing comments about Liverpool attacking midfielder Fabio Carvalho after his year-long loan was cut short by six months.
Liverpool recalled the 21-year-old from his loan spell and immediately sent him back out on loan this time to Championship outfit Hull City.
The Tigers seem delighted to have him and he had some encouraging moments during his debut. Carvalho played the full 90 minutes during a 2-1 defeat to Norwich City on Friday evening with WhoScored giving him a 7.25/10 rating.
However, RB Leipzig seem to have a lesser opinion as evidence by Shroder's comments
Leipzig sporting director Rouven Schroder has made some surprising comments about Carvalho, suggesting the former Fulham ace was not prepared to compete for his place in the RB Leipzig starting place.
During his time in the Bundesliga, he played for a total of just 360 minutes. With his display on Friday, he has already received a quarter of the game time he received in Germany.
Schroder said: ‘We consciously chose Fabio last summer. He had a great season with Fulham in the English second division, which is very physical. We said to ourselves: great talent, good age, has already gained his experience.
"Still, you only get to know a player as an end product when he’s there. Fabio has a great character. But he realised: “OK, there’s a competitor here, I have to do more!”. And we noticed that he didn’t want to face the competition."
All in all, these comments are quite concerning.
If true, it's not a good reflection on Carvalho's mentality and competitive nature and perhaps is why he didn't hit the ground running at Liverpool.
The Reds were insistent on demanding that Carvalho's loan contract included a clause that stipulates guaranteed time which led to Leeds United pulling out of talks.
He is now at Hull where he can hopefully kick on and prove to Klopp why he should be a part of his long-term plans for Liverpool 2.0.