REVEALED: The ideal loan transfer for Liverpool wonderkid Carvalho

Milan Keskin

• Updated: 2 Jan 2024 16:12 GMT
• 3 min read

Fábio Carvalho has been brought back early by Liverpool from his loan at RB Leipzig.

The attacking midfielder mainly had to make do with substitute appearances in Germany, while Liverpool hoped that he could take the next step in his development in the Bundesliga.

Now back in England, Carvalho is expected to head out on loan again this transfer period and the youngster should seriously consider a move to Ajax.

SciSports' Career Advice Tool shows that Carvalho would be a great fit in Amsterdam. The Portuguese youth international would benefit from a lot of playing time in the Eredivisie.

Fabrizio Romano has reported on X that Southampton are interested in the loan arrival of Carvalho, but whether the Championship is good for his development remains to be seen.

If Carvalho chooses to leave for Ajax on loan, he will have to compete with Kristian Hlynsson. The Icelandic midfielder got his chance in the starting line-up halfway through the first half of the season, partly due to the bad period Ajax was going through.

Looking at SciSports' skill ratings, Carvalho (66.4) is currently a lot further along in his development than Hlynsson (54.4), which means that the chances of playing time for the Portuguese at the Johan Cruyff ArenA could be considerable.

According to Romano, Carvalho is still part of Jürgen Klopp's future plans at Liverpool, making it unthinkable that the Reds would agree to a permanent departure of the Fulham-trained midfielder in the short term. The threat of a permanent move to Ajax does not seem too realistic given his Estimated Transfer Value (ETV) of €18.4 million.

It is also important for Liverpool that Carvalho gets back to playing soon, looking at his ETV. In recent months, during his loan to RB Leipzig, Carvalho's ETV decreased by no less than €3m. Liverpool had no choice but to pull the emergency brake and bring Carvalho back from Leipzig early to prevent a bigger drop.

Carvalho, who is under contract with Liverpool until 2027, has played 21 times for the English top club to date. Although Carvalho made a total of 15 appearances for RB Leipzig in the past six months, he mainly did so as a substitute. In total, Carvalho played just 360 minutes for RB Leipzig.