Tite Says Fabinho Has Brought 'Confidence' from Liverpool to Brazil Setup

Brazil boss Tite has hailed Fabinho for bringing positive energy and confidence with him from Liverpool into the national team. 

Per Goal's Dejan Kalinic, the manager spoke ahead of Tuesday's friendly with South Korea and singled out Fabinho for praise:

"All the times he played, he played very well.

"And he brings confidence from his club to the Brazil national squad. In a natural way, and we can feel it. It's not that you can only see it, you can feel it.

"Fabinho is playing his normal football in a role that he also has at Liverpool."

The midfielder signed for Liverpool from Monaco last year.

He didn't feature in the Reds' first eight Premier League matches last season as he acclimatised to his new surroundings and adapted to the demands of manager Jurgen Klopp.

The 26-year-old is now a key player at Anfield, though, which he showed in Liverpool's 3-1 win over Manchester City before the international break.

Fabinho opened the scoring with a superb strike:

That was just the start of an all-action performance in which he snuffed out danger left and right thanks to his superb defensive instincts and dominated the game from midfield with his passing and vision.

Football writers Leanne Prescott and Henry Jackson praised after the match:

Sports scientist and coach Simon Brundish further demonstrated his importance to Liverpool. The City match was the 31st Premier League game Fabinho has started, and Liverpool's victory means they've collected 85 out of a possible 93 points from those.

Despite helping the Reds finish last season on 97 points and win the UEFA Champions League, Fabinho was left out of Tite's Brazil squad for the Copa America in the summer.

He has only played 11 times for Brazil and started just four of those, having had to compete with City's Fernandinho and Real Madrid's Casemiro for space in the side.

The former is now 34, though, and he has not been in the Brazil squad this season. Fabinho's form is finally paying dividends, and he could become as important to the Selecao as he has for the Reds in the coming years.