Liverpool decided to cut ties with the player earlier this month
Fabio Carvalho has said he made the decision to leave Liverpool this summer for Brentford because he wants regular first-team football. The attacking midfielder featured for the Reds during pre-season but was given the green light to head out the exit door permanently.
The 21-year-old, who moved to Anfield from Fulham, joined the Merseyside outfit in 2022 and went on to play 21 games under former boss Jurgen Klopp, chipping in with three goals. He was loaned out to RB Leipzig last year for the first-half of the 2023/24 campaign.
Carvalho then returned to Liverpool in January after struggling to settle in Germany. He then linked up with Hull City in the Championship on a temporary basis and was a hit with the Tigers, scoring nine goals in the league.
He has explained in an interview with Sky Sports why he has now joined Brentford full-time: “I’m not going to just sit on the bench because what’s the point? I want to play football and show the world what I’m capable of, and why I train so hard every day. I’m not going to be able to do that by sitting on the bench.
“I did (ok during pre-season)…but you get that feeling where you know certain players aren’t back. When they come back, things change. As soon as you get that feeling, you’re like, look, this is the real deal. I’m not just going to stay at Liverpool as much as I love the club. I can sit here and say, ‘yeah, I should have played more’, but things happen for a reason, and I’m sure they were meant to happen that way.”
“I’ve learned so much from just being there, being around the great players that are there and just having that experience of training with them every day, which ultimately fuels me to want to reach that level.”
Carvalho has said his Hull loan move helped him enjoy his football again: “I’ll be honest with you, it made me fall back in love with football again. I think it’s something that I struggled with a bit. Being at Liverpool, one of the best clubs in the world, not playing, going to Germany, being by myself, not playing. It takes a lot out of a player.
“But going to Hull, it was just playing every week, which is all you need. And Liam Rosenior helped me so much, most of the credit is down to him. It just made me enjoy playing football, which is ultimately what I love doing. I’m at my happiest when I’m playing.”
“It’s not the only source of his happiness. I need to be happy before I even go to football and that’s where God comes in and being faithful and having faith in Christ, which really helped me when I was away in Germany.”
He has been impressed with the way Brentford have helped him settle so far: “If they put effort in with that, they’ll put effort with me every day when I come in. Wherever you go, not even just football, just life in general, like a job, you want to go somewhere where you’re going to feel wanted. You want to go somewhere where you’re going to feel part of the structure of the team, whatever it is.
“It’s the same with football. I want to go to an environment where I’m looking forward to going in every day, not when I wake up and think, ‘I have to go in’ kind of thing.”
