Firmino

[Frogfish]

He was great today. Finally showed some goal threat, and used the space that the brilliant runs of Lallana, Mane and Sturridge provided.

Should never play as the lone striker, but supporting a quality finisher and top striker like Sturridge he looks far more dangerous.

Of course, he needs to keep up this level of consistency and goal scoring, which he struggled with last season. Two goals in 4 Premiership games is a good ratio and he needs to keep it near one in two or three, because he didn't score enough last season for a forward.

I hope he can maintain this and make himself undroppable.

How many forwards, who don't play the whole season as CF, score at a ratio of 1:2 (only 6-7 players in the whole PL managed that in 2015/16) ? That's setting the bar far too high. A 50% ratio is that of a top striker, not a supporting forward who occasionally plays CF in times of need. Somewhere around 1:3 would be very very good.

To expand on this : every player above Firmino in the 2015/16 top goalscorers list was the starting CF at their club bar Sanchez (13 goals to Firmino's 10 in his first season in the PL), Arnautovic 11 (3 pens), Mane 11, Wijnaldum 11 (1 pen), Sigurdsson 11 (3 pens) and the PL POTY, Mahrez with 17. Costa had 12 and Martial 11 for further emphasis that Firmino is about where he should have been last season.

Expectations from the fans for this season are higher just because we expect the team as a whole to be much better but if he ends up with 13-14 PL goals (assuming he plays 38 games) he will have exceeded virtually every other forward in the PL bar the starting CFs.

 

[Frogfish]

Sorry - Firmino wasn't 'shit' last year. The 1st half was with a team in distress under Rodgers, where he wasn't fully fit and was struggling to get a run of games. He scored something like 10 goals in 31 games last year in the league - that's not too bad. Yes, sometimes he over complicates things, but he's ideal for Klopp imo - very good stamina, always takes up good positions, and constantly finds himself in the box in dangerous positions. I can seem him scoring 15-20 goals this season in the league.

20 would have made him 4th top scorer in the PL last season. It's just too high of an expectation to think he can reach that. 15 PL goals is a reachable target but he'll (and the team will) have to step up substantially to reach it.

 

[Frogfish]

*Pins Blue Peter 'Joey Deakin Limited Edition' Badge on Modo*

I'd prefer Valerie Singleton (or whatever her name was). Wank material in my youth.

 

[Dreambeliever]

He was brilliant today.

Easily our best player.

 

[tombrown]

I'd prefer Valerie Singleton (or whatever her name was). Wank material in my youth.

Valery Singleton? Seriously? You had odd fantasies
Sarah Greene joined the cast when I was a teen ... now she was well worth a wad of tissue. I even wrote a song about her 'Sarah Greene sex machine'

 

[Woland]

After the game in the pub there was a lot of people loving friminho and dissing studge, but I thought the attacking three behind studge got more space because of him. Huth and Morgan were constantly looking for him, presumably coz of his reputation and that freed up loads of room to allow lallana, mane and friminho to be brilliant.

Anyways I think last time we had this chat I said I'd warmed to him but it's about consistency. If he can play at this level every week he'll be at barca next year so he should really reign it in a bit

 

[Hansern]

They showed Sturridge involvement in the first 3 goals in the studio over here. First he created the space for Firmino with dragging the defender out left, then the back heel assist and on the third he created space for Wijnaldum.
He had a great game in all honesty. A bit more clinical and he'd have scored 2-3 goals himself.
Looked quicker and sharper though. The goals will come.

 

[Insignificance]

So this was on par with his City game last season. He has an extreme toplevel. Lets hope he raises the total performance .

 

[Red Bird]

They showed Sturridge involvement in the first 3 goals in the studio over here. First he created the space for Firmino with dragging the defender out left, then the back heel assist and on the third he created space for Wijnaldum.
He had a great game in all honesty. A bit more clinical and he'd have scored 2-3 goals himself.
Looked quicker and sharper though. The goals will come.

I thought the goals came about because players without the ball dragged defenders out of position and ran into space while those with the ball didn't dawdle or take two or three touches before trying to find a team-mate.

This may be sacrilegious but we attacked better without Coutinho. So, maybe, it maybe a case of Sturridge or Coutinho for some time.

 

[Jerry Laser]

Hes like Kuyt but with a trick....

Give him time, he'll be a great player for us in this team.

 

[Comical Aly]

Do people think we have a plan B now that's not just hoofing it into Stephen Caulker? I do. The line up with firmino up front is different and we can criticise him in those games but the test should be whether we win them not how many goals one player scores. I'm not comparing us to Barcelona but they managed that kind of game for a while albeit with tiki taking rather than gehenpressing. Either way he gives us the options - we have 5 or 6 players now who can be permutated for different styles. I don't think we'll win the league this year but i do think that we have a good shot at top 4.

Those little through ball and smart runs in behind that we saw yesterday are obviously things that Klopps been working on to help us break down the buses.

The most overused word on the coverage yesterday was consistency but it's true that's all we need now. The commentators said we need to play full throttle for 90 mins but I don't think that's the consistency we need. If we blow teams away for 20-30 mins a game we just need to shut the oppo down for the other hour.

Klopps taken a bit of sarky flak for being the messiah but I wouldn't want anyone else. If he can get us top 4 this season playing with plaudits we'll be very attractive for signings next summer. Our lack of spending under him so far might well pay off then if we have more cash to spend when we can actually get the top players to come things will be looking good for us - and now we're heading to 60k attendances it might not be too long before we're back at the top table.

Happy days. Now let's smash the chavs.

 

[localny]

The main narrative was that he wasn't suited or good enough to play as the lone striker in the league, or be the main attacking threat, because he wasn't quick enough, and didn't score enough goals.

And before this game, he hadn't scored any. So far, so right.

Amazingly, when Sturridge started as the striker, allowing Firmino to play a more supporting role, as I had suggested and wanted all along, he was excellent, and finally scored and looked dangerous.

What he has to do now is show this level on a consistent basis, which again, he has never done for Liverpool. If he can, everyone will be happy.

I don't really understand where you're going with this, unless you're just saying 'you were right' in a really weird fashion.

But then you are really weird, so maybe that's it

#backtrackwithnoname

 

[localny]

All jokes aside, he's been both anonymously bad and incredibly good last season and this season. It's a flair player thing. It's not unlike the Luis Garcia experience (but probably a little more of the positive, without the Champions League!)

 

[doctor_mac]

Hes like Kuyt but with a trick....

Give him time, he'll be a great player for us in this team.

Jerry, I think that's a fantastic analogy.

 

[doctor_mac]

As I said to Brendan yesterday, he's key to how we play. Bren is right in that having an out-and-out goalscorer near him does him a favour, and I suspect we'll see this a lot against teams we expect to sit back against us. But he is just a tirelessly hard worker, and is really very clever on the ball too. 'Kuyt with a trick' is perfect.

 

[mark1975]

Firmino's a good player, I don't get why people don't see it. I think he's been a victim at times of that false 9 role. He's a work hard player who'll create directly and indirectly with his skill, movement and workrate. Yesterday showed why you accommodate him in a team, it's rather ironic that we put a goalscorer alongside him and he bagged two goals.

The Kuyt comparison has been used before and is quite apt.

 

[Woland]

Oh come on kids he's absolutely fucking nothing like Kuyt.

 

[Rosco]

 

[Modo]

And a bit rich given you've had a go at loads of Liverpool players in your time.

Oh most definitely.
Difference is I'm not having a go at you for supporting a Liverpool player.

 

[Mystic]

Brendan's insistence to claim Firmino doesn't score enough goals is pretty hilarious considering he was our top scorer last season, and is joint top so far this season. Still the consistency point is very valid, he has too often been completely annoynomous in games, that was understandable last season as it was his first in the country, but he needs to be much more consistent this season.

 

[Cerberus]

 

[MaBigTip]

He's smart too. He resisted the urge to pull off his shirt when celebrating the first to avoid the yellow. I have to do that all the time but the punishment is more severe. 😱

 

[Gary25]

Lol at the Kuyt comparisons...you guys had a heavy weekend?

 

[Gary25]

He's smart too. He resisted the urge to pull off his shirt when celebrating the first to avoid the yellow. I have to do that all the time but the punishment is more severe. 😱

He does that celebration all the time though.

 

[Fabio]

Brendan's insistence to claim Firmino doesn't score enough goals is pretty hilarious considering he was our top scorer last season, and is joint top so far this season. Still the consistency point is very valid, he has too often been completely annoynomous in games, that was understandable last season as it was his first in the country, but he needs to be much more consistent this season.

Our goalscoring exploits were shit last year. Being joint top is nothing to write home about. And I'd expect him to be our top scorer this season because he started as a striker in 3 of the games

He does need to score more. Or rather, he needs to be more consistent in scoring

 

[manwithnoname]

Brendan's insistence to claim Firmino doesn't score enough goals is pretty hilarious considering he was our top scorer last season, and is joint top so far this season. Still the consistency point is very valid, he has too often been completely annoynomous in games, that was understandable last season as it was his first in the country, but he needs to be much more consistent this season.

Wow, yeah. That's how to fucking *demolish* my argument.

Firmino was our top scorer last season! Yeah! Which is the FUCKING PROBLEM.

Even if he actually wasn't top scorer. But anyway, let's stick to the Premiership

He scored a grand total of 10. Fucking. Goals.
That's nowhere near enough for a striker. Again, my exact point.

I'm not sure what all the confusion is about

 

[singlerider]

After the game in the pub there was a lot of people loving friminho and dissing studge, but I thought the attacking three behind studge got more space because of him. Huth and Morgan were constantly looking for him, presumably coz of his reputation and that freed up loads of room to allow lallana, mane and friminho to be brilliant.

Anyways I think last time we had this chat I said I'd warmed to him but it's about consistency. If he can play at this level every week he'll be at barca next year so he should really reign it in a bit

I thought Studge had a good game. I think the tendency has been to judge him on whether he scores goals, because of his nature of play (ie quite selfish) it's almost as though people assume if he's not scoring he doesn't offer much, which isn't necessarily true (thinking of how often he turned provider for Suarez) but has enough of a grain of truth to make it stick.

Anyhoo, I thought he put in a pretty selfless team performance with loads of good movement off the ball, which showed maturity and that he can offer more than just putting it in the back of the net.

I don't think there was much to moan about really

 

[doctor_mac]

Oh come on kids he's absolutely fucking nothing like Kuyt.

He's not in terms of playing style, but in terms of sheer effort and lung-busting running from 1-90, and the capacity to bring others into the game, he is like Kuyt.

 

[Oncy]

Hea really cute. Not in the american way 'Like oh my god hes like so like cute and everything'

But actually proper cute. Hes a cheeky cute little scamp.
Ive got this weird feeling about him that I dont get often about Liverpool players, like hes playing his own game and doing his own thing, sometimes they all click onto his wavelength and he is able to orchestrate proceedings, others he just seems absent from everything bit he doesnt give two shits. and the other 10 fuckers running around are kinda irrellevant to the Firmino show. I know this makes no sense, but its like watching a football team AND Firmino, rather than a football team with him in it.
And whilst this isnt a direct comparison at all the player who most made me feel this way in the past was John Barnes.

 

[gene hughes]

Even if you put a blonde wig on him and drove a car over his head a few times he still wouldn't look like Kuyt. You can really tell which of you lads have tickets on the top of the new stand.