Cesc Fabregas may feel like a left-of-field appointment at Liverpool, but there may be merits to his signing.
Arne Slot looks set to remain the head coach at Anfield until the summer at the very least.
However, there are serious questions to be asked of the Dutchman’s future beyond that point, given the scale of the club’s collapse in the 2025/26 season.
A certain former Red (cough, cough, Xabi Alonso, cough cough) may have something to say about this.
But the truth is that the former Arsenal man has undoubtedly caught the eye across Europe thanks to Como’s magnificent performance levels in Serie A this season.
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The 38-year-old has benefited from investment, as Lewis Steele rightly points out in his detailed analysis of the managerial landscape for the Daily Mail.
Regardless, to have helped the newly promoted outfit finish 10th in their first season back in Serie A in 2024/25 – and to now have taken the club to fourth in the table – is absolutely tremendous.
And don’t forget the important role he’d played as interim boss in 2023/24, helping Como gain automatic promotion to the Italian top-flight in six games.
Still, this is his first serious role in club management since being admitted to the UEFA Pro coaching course. So, there are more experienced candidates out there (cough, cough, Xabi Alonso, cough, cough).
There’s something we quite like about the fact that the well-meaning Spaniard has ‘rattled the established coaches of Italy’.
Steele reported: “Fabregas, the World Cup-winning ex-Arsenal, Barcelona and Chelsea midfielder is the mastermind behind Como’s rise and the best compliment one can pay him is that he has seemingly rattled the established coaches of Italy. Gian Piero Gasperini, the overachieving ex-Atalanta man now at Roma, snubbed a handshake and Max Allegri has called him a ‘child’ and ‘idiot’.
James Horncastle, who very much knows his stuff about Italian football, told The Athletic that Fabregas is considered something of a ‘radical’ in Italy. However, quite bizarrely for a country that supposedly worships tactics, his involvement in Italy has been met with some scorn.
As far as the Premier League is concerned, it should be noted that the former Arsenal star doesn’t conform to three at the back, instead favouring a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 with an emphasis on possession football and pressing in the final third. Principles Como didn’t abandon even when coming up against Italian giants Juventus away from home.
Still, an offer from Liverpool this summer is unlikely to come.
But you can see how Cesc Fabregas will, at the very least, be on the shortlist for several Premier League clubs.
My colleague at Sempre Milan, Oli Fisher, had this to say about Como’s rise under Fabregas: “Como are without doubt the gatecrashers of Serie A, and they look genuine contenders to make their Champions League debut this season given they currently sit in fourth place. They are not quite a fairytale like Atalanta were in recent years for example (who relied heavily on player trading), but are owned by the mega-rich Djarum group.
“This season alone Como have spent over €126m on signings, with a net spend of €110m. There are few Italian clubs that can match that – even the giants who are owned by rich funds themselves. It is a statement of their ambitions to become a regular presence in Europe, perhaps even taking Atalanta’s ‘spot’ as the outsiders.
“Assembling the talent is one thing, but Cesc Fabregas has got them to click too. The Spanish coach is without doubt the symbol of the whole project and his work to create an aesthetically appealing but also balanced and solid team is a big part of the rapid ascent.
“A look at the table tells you what you need to know: Como have scored 53 goals in 30 games this season, which is the second-best attack behind league-leaders Inter. However they have let in only 22, giving them the best defence in the entire division (and Europe’s top five leagues on per game average).
“Fabregas, as is to be expected from a player who achieved what he did with Barcelona and Spain, has opted for possession-based domination of games.
“However, he also asks his team to press and counter-press very aggressively, leading to PPDA numbers that have been among the best in Europe this season. It is in some ways a mix between Guardiola’s tiki-taka and Klopp’s pressing machines.
“Fabregas tends to use a 4-2-3-1 system. His teams build from the back with two centre-backs that are very composed on the ball (usually Ramon and Kempf), with two full-backs (Valle and Smolcic) that get forward to support attacks.
“The midfield is quite fluid, with Perrone and Da Cunha being perhaps the unsung heroes of the side as they anchor things. This allows more expressive players like Baturina and Nico Paz – who everyone in Europe now knows about – to shine.
“Fabregas also counter-balances this often by playing Vojvoda as a right-winger, a player that has largely been a full-back in his career. He has learned the rigours of Serie A on the job and this is a symbol of that, because with flair and creativity must come balance and organisation.
“The impressive Douvikas has been the spearhead of the attack, with 11 goals so far. In truth the volume of chances Como creates means a lot of strikers would enjoy playing in this team.
“The depth that Como have is remarkable too. In the last round for example they were able to bring Morata, Sergi Roberto, Alberto Moreno, Diego Carlos and Van Der Brempt on, leaving players like Jesus Rodriguez and and Nicolas Kühn watching from the bench. Assane Diao has had some physical issues this season, but he is an incredible talent too.
“There are two intriguing things about Fabregas to me. The first is his relationship with Italian football: after totally dominating the game in terms of possession and chances but losing 3-1 at home to Milan this season, he was very spiky in the media.
“He made a few not-so-subtle digs about the fact pragmatic is often preferred and prevails in Serie A, something that has been a stereotype for decades (with some merit).
“Another thing that intrigued was how he tackled the return game at San Siro against Massimiliano Allegri. Rather than double down on his style to try and prove it works, he matched Milan’s 3-5-2, playing without a striker and using Baturina and Paz up front. It was a 1-1 draw, but it felt like he did it to prove a point that he can also win a certain way.
“I see a very, very high ceiling for Fabregas, not just because of his style of football but also the way he is navigating a very difficult league like the Italian one by learning from every setback and tweaking his style slightly. Those core principles remain of course, and I imagine they will go with him to his next club.
“Speaking of which, I don’t actually see Fabregas being at Como too much longer. Although their plans are ambitious and they would put up a serious fight to keep him, his frustrations with Serie A shine through too often.
“He might see a UCL spot as job done and move on, or even lead them into Europe for the first time, but then an elite club will come knocking and most likely would turn his head, as Inter nearly did in the summer.”
Michel Sakr, of Juvefc.com and The Laziali, said: “With the backing of the richest club owners in Italian football, Como’s meteoric rise to prominence is far from a classic fairy tale. The Lariani have constantly injected quality into the squad, whether through experienced profiles like Sergi Roberto and Alvaro Morata, superb young talents like Nico Paz and Assane Diao, or even unsung players craving a chance, like Lucas Da Cunha and Anastasios Douvikas.
“That being said, cash and savvy recruitment are seldom enough to guarantee success, so Como owe much of their rapid success to their brilliant young head coach, Cesc Fabregas, who has been exceptional at constantly integrating a host of players into the fold without ever jeopardising the style of play or the results.
“For the purists, the Lariani are widely considered one of the best sides to watch in Serie A. Undoubtedly inspired by his former coaches Arsene Wenger and Pep Guardiola, the former Arsenal and Barcelona midfielder has implemented a possession-based style that obviously derives from the so-called ‘Tiki-Taka’.
“But while these systems can prompt a plethora of goals at both ends of the pitch, it hasn’t been the case at Como. On the contrary, the team’s ability to maintain possession, dictate the tempo, and smother their opponents in their own areas has seen them concede fewer goals (22) than any other team in Serie A after 30 rounds.
“Fabregas’ rise to managerial stardom will inevitably pique the interest of some of the biggest clubs on the continent. However, we’ve already seen young aspiring managers failing to replicate their earlier success after making the transition to a European giant, like Xabi Alonso, Ruben Amorim, and Thiago Motta.
“These managers were perhaps too attached to their ‘football philosophy’, and weren’t always willing to meet the squad halfway. Some of them also lacked the man-management skills, which is becoming an increasingly undermined aspect among the new generation of tacticians.
“However, Fabregas has yet to display any red flags on these fronts. Surely he’ll be keen to instil his preferred style wherever he goes, but he has also shown a willingness to switch formations during the course of the match and make key adjustments (like replacing a striker with a false 9 or vice versa).
“The Spaniard also appears to be particularly popular in the locker room, perhaps even perceived as ‘one of the boys’. He is often seen giving pre and post-match speeches to rally the troops, and he is also an animated figure on the touchline, going as far as to pull the shirt of Milan wing-back Alexis Saelemaekers in a bizarre incident that sparked an angry reaction from his colleague, Max Allegri.
“‘Idiot! You’re a child who started coaching yesterday,’ vented the Rossoneri manager.
“All in all, early signs suggest Fabregas will enjoy a long and successful managerial career, but hailing him as ‘the next big thing’ in coaching remains premature, as his true mettle will only be put to the test when he joins a big club.”
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I like a pressing , fast aggressive kind of football because of its unpredictability.I hate tortoise kind of football because it is predictable and there’s no way you catch your opponents by surprise. As from the season 25/26 Man.city is at honey moon, when playing LFC.But when Klop was at the helm,Man.City always had sleepless night prior playing LFC. As LFC fans& supporters we say ” enough is enough.
Arne Slot going nowhere any time soon. Full backing from Lfc owners
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