Remembing Roberto Firmino at his best
Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino has had a few memorable moments since he joined the club in 2015. This is one of his best.
We’ve been blessed with a forward who can get Liverpool fans onto their feet with a small shimmy and a no look pass – but this moment from Roberto Firmino’s debut season is up there with the best.
It was also Jurgen Klopp’s first in charge of the side and he was getting to grips with the strengths and weaknesses of the unit.
You have to wonder what he was thinking as he watched the man Brendan Rodgers didn’t want perform tricks like the one below.
Liverpool lined up with Firmino supporting Daniel Sturridge while Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho made up the midfield.
Klopp would oversee a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Sturridge, Lallana and an own goal as the Reds made it to the Europa League final.
Roberto Soldado was playing for Villarreal that day, and he’s the man who Firmino bamboozled so thoroughly that he flicked an arm out to try and grab the Brazilian and stop the humiliation.
Soldado was pretty ineffective in preventing that from happening, just like he failed to help his side get on the score sheet as a defence of Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne, Kolo Toure, Dejan Lovren and Alberto Moreno kept a clean sheet.
Our defence has progressed at a phenomenal rate since those days, has it not?
This would just be the first example of the tricks Firmino can bring to the game. He hasn’t been a traditional centre forward for Liverpool, but when Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are cutting in from wide positions and doing the damage, someone in the traditional mode isn’t really required.
Bobby drops deep, links play and turns defenders into fools. And that’s just how we like it.