Roberto Firmino is Jurgen Klopp’s steam engine

Roberto Firmino is the Liverpool steam engine.

Roberto Firmino. ‘Barbosa el Maestro’. The lad with the Cheshire cat grin and magic in his boots.

Firmino is a new era hybrid cross between the traditional strikers of bygone ages and the false 9s that populate the position today.

Bobby is all skill, all class and is the front man for a withering attack. His contribution over the past three seasons has been unquantifiable and there’s a reason he’s so loved.

Jurgen Klopp has said he is the ‘engine room’ for the offense and defense, linking play through the midfield by retreating to the midline and pushing the ball forward to his world class mates Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Firmino also provides ammunition for flying full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

He is also often the tip of the spear in defense, along with his forward mates, closing down in a relentless geggenpressing style that Klopp has instilled and taught in order to win the ball back as early as possible to go immediately on the attack.

More from Rush The Kop

• Darwin continues to find footing match by match
• LFC can build major momentum with a West Ham win
• Important takeaways from Liverpool’s LASK win
• The Europa League is not a punishment for Liverpool
• Which players can take advantage of Europa League chance?

How many countless times over the last three campaigns have we witnessed the joy from this precise by design transition?

Roberto Firmino is a constant threat, either with or without the ball, and he is tireless.

The former Hoffenheim man is strong with his back to goal, and often reminds me of the basketball center posted at the free throw line with the job of directing passes to guards and forwards slanting towards the basket.

Indeed he is just as dangerous with his back to goal; a crafty, clever, skilled possessor of the football who is always composed and in control of the game at his feet.

Firmino has great peripheral vision and he knows where everyone is at on the pitch. This is demonstrated by his no look passes and his no look shots at goal. He consistently draws two central defenders which allows for one v one situations for Mane and Salah.

His presence in the center of the most deadly triumvirate in world football these past three years makes Mane and Salah even more dangerous. He makes them even better, if that’s even possible.

They all work exceptionally well off of each other, but Bobby is the fulcrum that makes the whole steam engine, steam engine when it come steam engine time. His value to Liverpool is incalculable in this regard. He is every bit the leader in his role as Virgil van Dijk is in his role at the other end.

He played four and a half seasons at Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga before making the transition to Liverpool in summer 2015 under Brendan Rogers. Since his arrival, which coincided with Jurgen Klopp’s that October, no Liverpool player has logged more minutes on the pitch under the Teutonic Teddybear than Firmino.

His strength and stamina, fitness and overall health makes him an instant choice for the team each week as a matter of course. His overall skills, dribbling, passing, and scoring make him the most well rounded center forward in England.

There has been much made of his lean goal scoring this past season, particularly at Anfield which saw him go scoreless until the last home game of the season against Chelsea. He has suffered relentless and heartless pounding by the press, sports media, and certain quarters of the Liverpool fanbase.

This issue has been addressed in the Liverpool Echo, where Jurgen has stood by his top forward; defending him just as faithfully and relentlessly.

At 28, Bobby is well into the prime of his career, and remains one of the most important cogs in the Klopp machine that has impressed so many experts, pundits, and peers in England, Europe, and around the footballing world.