Manchester United have already snared Swedish centre-back Victor Lindelof, and will soon confirm the signing of Nemanja Matic from Chelsea. Yet despite the 28-year-old Serbian's imminent arrival, Jose Mourinho is still keen to bolster his defensive midfield options. It’s his targeting of Monaco’s Fabinho that has excited United fans the most – and with good reason.
Fabinho is the perfect man to add steel, protection and intelligence to this United side
The 23-year-old Brazilian played a crucial part in the club’s run to the Champions League semi-finals and first Ligue 1 title in 17 years, and has established himself out as one of the finest midfield anchors in Europe.
Of the midfielders still under consideration for a switch to Old Trafford this summer, Fabinho is the outstanding candidate; the perfect man to add steel, protection and intelligence to this United side, and who could free Paul Pogba up for the Frenchman to express himself further forward.
Destroyer vs playmaker
Traditionally, Mourinho has always operated with a destroyer at the base of his midfield: a player tactically disciplined and physically imposing, but cautious in possession and uninterested in getting forward.
At Porto he had Costinha; in his first spell at Chelsea it was Claude Makelele; at Inter it was Esteban Cambiasso; while Lassana Diarra played that role for his Real Madrid side.
Contrastingly, United have tended to use a deep-lying playmaker in this position, someone more concerned with dictating tempo and moving his team-mates around the pitch like the pieces on a chess board, rather than flying into tackles.
When the Old Trafford side moved away from what had been their customary 4-4-2 setup under Alex Ferguson in the early- to mid-2000s, captain Roy Keane often sat in front of the back four in a 4-3-3 formation. The combative Irishman was no stranger to a tackle or mixing things up physically, but he was also a tremendous passer, capable of breaking through the opposition lines and always trying to move his team forward.
Since Keane’s departure in 2005, the defensive midfield role has largely been fulfilled by Michael Carrick, with Owen Hargreaves and Darren Fletcher also occupying the position at different times. Each of them are or were technical operators, influencing games via intelligence rather than brute force.
Fabinho, with his blend of athleticism, discipline and technique, is the perfect midway point between both ideals. In securing the Brazilian, Mourinho would be getting his midfield destroyer without compromising on technical quality.
Passing to relieve pressure
The Monaco star’s pass accuracy of 84.4% in Ligue 1 last season is a slight reduction on Carrick’s 89% Premier League average, while Ander Herrera (who also played as United’s deepest midfield on a regular basis last term) completed 87.6% of his passes.
However, Fabinho demonstrated his ability to play the kind of incisive vertical passes which are becoming an increasingly valuable trait in the modern game. With structured and coordinated pressing now more common demands from managers, the advantage of having a player capable of breaking through an opponent’s press is twofold: it aids forward progression but also relieves pressure, moving possession into areas of available space.
The advantage of having a player capable of breaking the lines of the opponent’s press is twofold: it aids forward progression, but it also relieves pressure
Fabinho’s average of one key pass per 90 minutes last season was better than Carrick’s return of 0.7. Meanwhile, his figure of 1.1 dribbles per match was unmatched by Carrick (0.4) and Matic (0.9), and achieved by his excellent ability to hold off oncoming defenders and carry the ball beyond them into space.
The Brazilian's mastery of spreading play over short and medium distances will prove invaluable to Pogba, whose creative instincts were too often stifled by defensive responsibility last season. In short, he was deployed deeper than he’d have liked in a double pivot.
During his time at Juventus, the 24-year-old midfielder produced his best form on the left of a midfield three with a deep-lying playmaker – or regista – alongside him, rather than a pure defensive midfielder. For the majority of his time in Turin, Pogba had the luxury of sharing a midfield with Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio – two world-class registi who could not only break up opposition attacks, but get the ball to him in the kinds of areas where he is most dangerous.
A more conventional destroyer such as Matic or Eric Dier (also linked to Manchester United this summer) might be less able to help Pogba in this way, but Fabinho would have no such trouble.
Next: Fabinho's excellence in action
Physical and tactical
To be considered for the anchor role in any Mourinho team, however, the physical and tactical boxes must be ticked.
What makes the former Rio Ave man’s rise to prominence as a dominant destroyer in the centre of the park all the more remarkable is that, before the start of last season, he had spent the vast majority of his career as a right-back.
His defensive instincts show in the stats: Fabinho's 3.3 tackles per 90 minutes last season far exceeded any United player with five or more Premier League appearances to their name – Carrick made 1.1 – and blows both Matic (1.7) and Dier (1.3) out of the water.
Although he had featured in midfield a handful of times ahead of the 2016/17 campaign, Fabinho’s relative inexperience in the role is perhaps betrayed by the fact that Carrick, who relies more on sound positioning and anticipation to win the ball, makes 2.3 interceptions per 90 to the Brazilian’s 1.6. But the Monaco’s man’s average is still respectable and comparable to Matic’s 1.7.
Fabinho’s experience as a full-back also means he has a broader attacking arsenal than most of his peers. When the opportunities present themselves for him to push forward, he’s capable of drifting into the inside-right channel and producing impeccable crosses.
It was in exactly this manner that he contributed an assist for Radamel Falcao to head home against Manchester City in the first leg of Monaco’s Champions League triumph over the Premier League side. He would create a second goal in that game by executing a perfectly weighted ball for teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe to race onto.
The cross for Falcao's header. Nice
Aside from his technical and physical attributes, Fabinho’s potential arrival at Old Trafford gives Mourinho – who briefly worked with the 23-year-old when he made one appearance on loan for Real Madrid in 2012/13 – a degree of tactical flexibility that the Portuguese coach would greatly value.
Fitting in
Mourinho predominantly used either a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation last season, and Fabinho could comfortably operate as a defensive midfield pivot in either system. Alternatively, the Brazilian’s experience as one of two central midfielders in a 4-4-2 shape at Monaco could open up another avenue for United, giving the Red Devils the option of fielding two strikers while trying out Pogba in a system similar to that he excelled in alongside Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante for France against England earlier this month.
With Antonio Valencia turning 32 in August, Fabinho’s ability to play at right-back also offers Mourinho the chance to rotate the Ecuadorian to preserve his fitness. The Monaco man’s suitability for either a midfield or wing-back role would give the United boss an option of further experimenting with either 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 – formations which were toyed with during the Red Devils’ injury crisis in March and yielded sufficiently positive results to warrant revisiting.
Reports in Italy and France suggest that, regardless of any of their other pursuits, Fabinho is very much a target for the 20-time champions of England this summer, with a fee in the region of €50m mooted.
United might well net themselves a big-name striker, but capturing Fabinho would be their signing of the summer. He's no shirt-selling superstar, but a combination of functionality and fantasy which could prove transformative.
