Is Roberto Firmino the man to lead the line for Liverpool?
After Liverpool superbly beat Tottenham 2-0, Sadio Mane, the scorer of both goals, took most of the plaudits. Jurgen Klopp, however, eulogised over Roberto Firmino’s overlooked brilliance.
Firmino, my God. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better game from a striker without scoring.
Striker is the key word there, while many fans believe Firmino is playing out of position, Klopp begs to differ. Klopp told Firmino he is a striker who can sometimes play out wide after beating Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge last year.
However, is the Brazilian the right man to lead the line for a club which is so used to mercurial front men like Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez, Robbie Fowler, Ian Rush and Micheal Owen?
Firmino, when compared to the strikers in the Premier League, comes up short on goals. According to Squaka, Firmino scores 0.33 goals per game while Harry Kane scores 0.7 goals, Alexis Sanchez 0.68, Diego Costa 0.65 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic 0.62. In effect, this shows that Liverpool’s main striker is half as prolific as the strikers at their rivals.
Firmino, on average, takes 3.1 shots per game, more than Kane and Costa who take 2.85 and 3.04 respectively. Firmino also has the better shooting accuracy then all of his rivals, hitting the target 63% of the time. This suggests Firmino lacks killer instinct, which a natural striker like Costa has.
However, a Klopp striker requires more than just goals. Klopp’s gegenpressing style means pressing from the front and Firmino is the perfect catalyst for this. Firmino makes 1.29 tackles a game compared to Kane and Costa who make 0.55 and 0.22 respectively. Firmino makes many more interceptions (0.75) and blocks (0.12) per game then all of the other strikers.
Liverpool have played scintillating football at times this season and a lot of that is due to the link up play of our tricky Brazillian with the likes of Mane, Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana.
Firmino has completed the most passes and has the best passing accuracy at 79% out of all the main strikers of our rivals. Only Alexis Sanchez has completed more successful take ons (67.62%) and created more chances (2.52 per game) then Firmino.
So, the Brazilian’s influence in the team cannot be understated. When he plays well, so does the rest of the team but the big questions is; does Firmino’s brilliant work off the ball and his overall effect on the team compensate for his lack of goals?
Firmino has started 14 games up top, in which Liverpool scored 31 goals or 2.2 goals per game. Chelsea, have scored two goals per game with Costa up front. This suggests Firmino playing striker is not the problem as much as our leaky defence.
The Liverpool front four of Firmino, Mane, Coutinho and Lallana have been breath taking at times. They are so in sync with each other. The front four have started 11 games together, resulting in 28 goals, or 2.55 goals per game, which is outstanding.
The problem is that when one of them is injured, Firmino has had to move position. If Klopp believes Firmino is his main striker then he needs to play him up front as much as possible.
This season Firmino has played only five games consecutively as a striker, Liverpool scored 14 goals in that period. Therefore, if Klopp wants Firmino to develop into a prolific striker, he should sign wingers to back up Mane and Coutinho and play Firmino exclusively as a striker no matter what.
One thing Firmino does seem to lack is the ability to grab a winning goal in a tight game when the team aren’t playing well. Diego Costa has scored six winners for Chelsea.
In my opinion, Klopp should play Firmino exclusively as a striker until the end of the season to see if he can be prolific with consistent games up front.
In the summer, we should buy a striker who fits into Klopp’s system and can be competition to Firmino maybe Andrea Belotti who works hard and has scored 17 goals for Torino or Timo Werner who is leading Red Bull Leipzig to a title challenge but for now, the Brazilian can’t be the man who moves to cover for injuries.