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