Roberto Firmino - signed the silky swine
- Thread starter LeTallecWiz
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attitude wise - firmino
talent - depay probably
bring what suarez did in the upper third harassment wise - firmino
tattoos - even
names - Memphis FTW
I'm struggling to see the balance in the team here.
We have Coutinho, Lallana and Markovic already? Where are they all going to play?
Personally, I think we'll need Ibe to give us some genuine pace and penetration out wide (with Raheem gone).
Also, I believe we'll need Origi or Sturridge to give us a threat running in behind.
So how do the other positions add up? I'm not sure whether we have any set plans. We seem to be signing good players without a thought for balance within the team.
We have Coutinho, Lallana and Markovic already? Where are they all going to play?
Personally, I think we'll need Ibe to give us some genuine pace and penetration out wide (with Raheem gone).
Also, I believe we'll need Origi or Sturridge to give us a threat running in behind.
So how do the other positions add up? I'm not sure whether we have any set plans. We seem to be signing good players without a thought for balance within the team.
Firmino is pretty quick isn't he? He seems to be the made replacement for Sterling, just hopefully a little better.
From what I've seen, he's not blessed with great pace so won't or shouldn't be deployed out wide. Probably similar to a Coutinho or Henderson in pace. Technically, as a ball striker, he's better than Raheem, but in the PL you need the balance of technique and pace (ideally both), and right now we seem well short of the latter (Sturridge out, Suarez gone, Raheem on his way). Origi and Ibe might provide us with it, but they're unproven.
You think Suarez had pace?
He had great acceleration over 10m. He had just about enough pace for me to include him above. Just enough. I'll cite the 4-0 Everton goal where he had just enough get away.
If Raheem/Walcott are 10/10. D.Sturridge/Ibe/Ronaldo/Neymar 9/10, Messi/Sanchez 8/10, I'd put Suarez at a 7.5/10... and Firmino from what i've seen at a 7/10. Mind you, I'm purely (hands up) going by the Youtube videos.. so he could be struggling to run away from fast defenders who I don't know about.
An ugly bastard that's for sure.
The Everton goal is a pretty bad example: he was running for ages just slightly ahead of a couple of really slow centre halves.
Firmino to me looks quicker than Suarez but not pacey as such.
Also, I wouldn't put Sterling at 10/10, no way. Ibe is quicker than him, for a start, as is Sturridge. 10/10 is someone like that Ntep guy we were linked with at Rennes.
I hope so, otherwise I can't see him playing upfront by himself like Suarez did. I'll need to watch a full game or two before saying how quick he is, but I was little concerned by the YT videos I saw. Maybe he wasn't in full flow.
How in the fuark have I been left out of the DA...for the second year in a row?!?
Dammit Oncy.
I'd say Ibe is more athletic and *powerful* over 50m, especially if they are running without a ball. But over 10m, Sterling simply ghosts past players.
Sturridge, I've forgotten how fast he is. I don't remember the last time he truly stretched his legs.
Ntep (from YT videos) looked another powerful one. But yeah, if you've got him at a 10, maybe Raheem is 9 or 9.5.
Oh so now we have reduced from first 10 meters to firsttwo meters?
You reduce that a little bit more and ill be the fastes man on thw planet.
Depends if there's a crate of Fosters at the end of that distance..
Zeno's paradox?
I'd say upper body strength is more important. Ibe is better at beating a man than Sterling, basically for that reason.
Have I been whooshed?
Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino: a thiever of balls who never stops running
In December 2010 the Hoffenheim sporting director, Ernst Tanner, travelled to the east coast of Brazil to check out a player at the second division side Figueirense. The reports had been promising but Tanner did not know what to expect as he turned up for training to watch the young Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira. Afterwards, Tanner was not much the wiser. “It was strange because during some exercises he would just, without any apparent reason, just fold … but instead of making a big meal out of it and getting angry, he listened carefully to his coach and learned from what he had done wrong. That impressed me.” It is perhaps not the most glowing reference ever heard from a scouting mission but Tanner convinced Hoffenheim that the 19-year-old, whose move to Liverpool was announced on Wednesday, was worth a gamble. In January 2011 the Bundesliga club signed the player for €4m without much fanfare. At the low-key unveiling Tanner explained the club’s plans for the unknown Brazilian. “We are delighted to have been able to strengthen our squad with a top talent from Brazil, in which several international clubs were interested,” he said. “We will give him enough time to settle in here at our club. He has already shown his qualities with eight goals in 36 games and was recently voted the best player in the Brazilian second division.” In hindsight, Firmino could hardly have chosen a better club to start his European adventure. Hoffenheim is a tiny town south of Frankfurt with only around 3,000 inhabitants. The young Brazilian was allowed to settle without the pressure of being at a big club, or even in a big city. Advertisement Hoffenheim are only in the Bundesliga because of Dietmar Hopp’s huge financial support but they have also been extremely successful with their South American imports. In the month Firmino arrived at Hoffenheim, the club sold Luiz Gustavo to Bayern Munich for €17m. He had arrived from Corinthians Alagoano in 2008 for an even smaller fee than Firmino did three years later. Firmino, in fact, was looking forward to moving to Europe so much that he got himself a tattoo in German before he boarded the flight. There was only one slight problem: he had used an internet translation tool, which did not use the umlaut on the ö in the phrase Familie unaufhorlich Liebe, which roughly translates as “unremitting love for the family”. Undeterred, the Brazilian made his Bundesliga debut a month after arriving in Germany and played in 11 league games that season, mainly as a substitute, scoring three goals; and this is the thing about Firmino, he is not an out-and-out goalscorer. He is a forward who averages roughly a goal every three games, and he has done that throughout his career. What he does provide, though, is an unrelenting work ethic. In that respect, he is similar to Luis Suárez and Alexis Sánchez. He will harry and press the opponents until he drops. In one match report in Germany he was described as the “clever, first stealer of balls in Hoffenheim’s pressing system”. Holger Stanislawski, his first manager at Hoffenheim, immediately described him as being “unbelievably good tactically”, which will be music to Brendan Rodgers’ ears after a season of having to teach Mario Balotelli, among other things, how to defend at corners. In fact he has been showered with praise for most of his time in Germany, the papers describing him as one of few players “who stay focused for the entire 90 minutes” and a “master of moving around without anyone noticing him, to provide goals or score them himself”. There have been some disciplinary issues and he was once suspended briefly by Hoffenheim for turning up late for training but that was early on in his career and he has not done it since. The 23-year-old was born in Maceió – as was Pepe and Mario Zagallo – which is one of Brazil’s most dangerous cities. His father sold water bottles to commuters waiting in the queues in and out of the city and he had to move to Figueirense on his own when he was 16. “It was not an easy time,” he has said, “I was completely on my own.” But that experience will have prepared him for moving to Germany, and now to England. The 2013-14 season was arguably Firmino’s best to date with the manager Markus Gisdol getting the best out of him. Gisdol not only made him a better attacking player but also instilled the workrate ethic that was surely a big reason for Liverpool paying as much as £29m for him. That season he scored 16 goals in 33 Bundesliga games, finishing third behind Marco Reus (30) and Robert Lewandowski (31) in the goalscoring charts. He also provided 12 assists that season and is, in fact, the player who has created most chances in the Bundesliga (138) over the past two seasons. Firmino also had the joint-third most assists last season (10) with Thomas Müller. Not bad for someone playing for a mid-table club. Currently with Brazil at the Copa América, Firmino has coped well with the pressure of leading the line now that Neymar is suspended and he has already scored four goals in nine appearances for the national team. Carlos Dunga’s side play Paraguay in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Behind the scenes, he is a bubbly, fun character but in front of the cameras he comes across as incredibly shy. On Tuesday, at a Copa press conference before his moved was confirmed, he managed to answer 18 questions without saying anything of note. It got to a point where the Brazilian journalists could only smile. Most importantly for Liverpool, though, is that they seem to have learned from last summer’s travails in the transfer market. Then a deal for Loïc Rémy collapsed in late July and the club were forced into what can only be described as a panic buy with Balotelli in August. This time they have already signed James Milner, Adam Bogdan, Danny Ings and now Firmino. The fee is eye-watering considering it is almost as much as Chelsea paid for Diego Costa and more (with add-ons) than Arsenal paid for Sánchez. But there is no doubt that he is an extremely talented young player who is still improving. There will be few defences in the Premier League looking forward to an afternoon battling Philippe Coutinho, Firmino and Daniel Sturridge – if fit. And while £29m does seem a lot, if Raheem Sterling joins Manchester City for a fee of around £45-50m then Liverpool will have got a more consistent performer and made a hefty profit in the process. They will settle for that, and if Sterling stays, then opposing defences will be in even more trouble next season.
In December 2010 the Hoffenheim sporting director, Ernst Tanner, travelled to the east coast of Brazil to check out a player at the second division side Figueirense. The reports had been promising but Tanner did not know what to expect as he turned up for training to watch the young Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira. Afterwards, Tanner was not much the wiser. “It was strange because during some exercises he would just, without any apparent reason, just fold … but instead of making a big meal out of it and getting angry, he listened carefully to his coach and learned from what he had done wrong. That impressed me.” It is perhaps not the most glowing reference ever heard from a scouting mission but Tanner convinced Hoffenheim that the 19-year-old, whose move to Liverpool was announced on Wednesday, was worth a gamble. In January 2011 the Bundesliga club signed the player for €4m without much fanfare. At the low-key unveiling Tanner explained the club’s plans for the unknown Brazilian. “We are delighted to have been able to strengthen our squad with a top talent from Brazil, in which several international clubs were interested,” he said. “We will give him enough time to settle in here at our club. He has already shown his qualities with eight goals in 36 games and was recently voted the best player in the Brazilian second division.” In hindsight, Firmino could hardly have chosen a better club to start his European adventure. Hoffenheim is a tiny town south of Frankfurt with only around 3,000 inhabitants. The young Brazilian was allowed to settle without the pressure of being at a big club, or even in a big city. Advertisement Hoffenheim are only in the Bundesliga because of Dietmar Hopp’s huge financial support but they have also been extremely successful with their South American imports. In the month Firmino arrived at Hoffenheim, the club sold Luiz Gustavo to Bayern Munich for €17m. He had arrived from Corinthians Alagoano in 2008 for an even smaller fee than Firmino did three years later. Firmino, in fact, was looking forward to moving to Europe so much that he got himself a tattoo in German before he boarded the flight. There was only one slight problem: he had used an internet translation tool, which did not use the umlaut on the ö in the phrase Familie unaufhorlich Liebe, which roughly translates as “unremitting love for the family”. Undeterred, the Brazilian made his Bundesliga debut a month after arriving in Germany and played in 11 league games that season, mainly as a substitute, scoring three goals; and this is the thing about Firmino, he is not an out-and-out goalscorer. He is a forward who averages roughly a goal every three games, and he has done that throughout his career. What he does provide, though, is an unrelenting work ethic. In that respect, he is similar to Luis Suárez and Alexis Sánchez. He will harry and press the opponents until he drops. In one match report in Germany he was described as the “clever, first stealer of balls in Hoffenheim’s pressing system”. Holger Stanislawski, his first manager at Hoffenheim, immediately described him as being “unbelievably good tactically”, which will be music to Brendan Rodgers’ ears after a season of having to teach Mario Balotelli, among other things, how to defend at corners. In fact he has been showered with praise for most of his time in Germany, the papers describing him as one of few players “who stay focused for the entire 90 minutes” and a “master of moving around without anyone noticing him, to provide goals or score them himself”. There have been some disciplinary issues and he was once suspended briefly by Hoffenheim for turning up late for training but that was early on in his career and he has not done it since. The 23-year-old was born in Maceió – as was Pepe and Mario Zagallo – which is one of Brazil’s most dangerous cities. His father sold water bottles to commuters waiting in the queues in and out of the city and he had to move to Figueirense on his own when he was 16. “It was not an easy time,” he has said, “I was completely on my own.” But that experience will have prepared him for moving to Germany, and now to England. The 2013-14 season was arguably Firmino’s best to date with the manager Markus Gisdol getting the best out of him. Gisdol not only made him a better attacking player but also instilled the workrate ethic that was surely a big reason for Liverpool paying as much as £29m for him. That season he scored 16 goals in 33 Bundesliga games, finishing third behind Marco Reus (30) and Robert Lewandowski (31) in the goalscoring charts. He also provided 12 assists that season and is, in fact, the player who has created most chances in the Bundesliga (138) over the past two seasons. Firmino also had the joint-third most assists last season (10) with Thomas Müller. Not bad for someone playing for a mid-table club. Currently with Brazil at the Copa América, Firmino has coped well with the pressure of leading the line now that Neymar is suspended and he has already scored four goals in nine appearances for the national team. Carlos Dunga’s side play Paraguay in the quarter-finals on Saturday. Behind the scenes, he is a bubbly, fun character but in front of the cameras he comes across as incredibly shy. On Tuesday, at a Copa press conference before his moved was confirmed, he managed to answer 18 questions without saying anything of note. It got to a point where the Brazilian journalists could only smile. Most importantly for Liverpool, though, is that they seem to have learned from last summer’s travails in the transfer market. Then a deal for Loïc Rémy collapsed in late July and the club were forced into what can only be described as a panic buy with Balotelli in August. This time they have already signed James Milner, Adam Bogdan, Danny Ings and now Firmino. The fee is eye-watering considering it is almost as much as Chelsea paid for Diego Costa and more (with add-ons) than Arsenal paid for Sánchez. But there is no doubt that he is an extremely talented young player who is still improving. There will be few defences in the Premier League looking forward to an afternoon battling Philippe Coutinho, Firmino and Daniel Sturridge – if fit. And while £29m does seem a lot, if Raheem Sterling joins Manchester City for a fee of around £45-50m then Liverpool will have got a more consistent performer and made a hefty profit in the process. They will settle for that, and if Sterling stays, then opposing defences will be in even more trouble next season.
No, I'm serious. Most successful take ons involve some element of shoulder to shoulder contact, or similar.
Pretty decent, hopefully the adds-on are £5million when we win the league, £3million when we beat Chelsea.
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