Roberto Firmino’s importance to Liverpool proven by Gini Wijnaldum’s dressing room words

Firmino looks back to his best and vital to Liverpool’s attack

It took an evening of acting as Roberto Firmino’s deputy for one of his team-mates to fully appreciate just how important he is to Liverpool.

A groin injury prevented Firmino from starting the first leg of May’s Champions League semi-final against Barcelona, meaning Georginio Wijnaldum played up front at the Camp Nou instead.

A natural-born midfielder, Wijnaldum was not only unfamiliar with the position but also the specific requirements of the role. He started badly and got worse, eventually being replaced by Firmino after 78 minutes. That 12-minute cameo only aggravated Firmino’s groin further, ruling him out of the return leg at Anfield.

Four months on from that night’s punishing 3-0 defeat, Jurgen Klopp remembers how Wijnaldum turned to Firmino in the dressing room in astonishment. He had to ask. “What the heck are you doing in that position?! It’s unbelievable! It’s so intense!”

Klopp says: “That was probably the biggest respect you can get. When you play the position once and you see that.”

It is not that Liverpool cannot function without Firmino. He played no part in the 4-0 turnaround at Anfield, remember. But after a goal, assist and masterful performance in the 3-0 victory at Burnley on Saturday, Klopp admitted that Liverpool would have to do things differently if not for the Brazilian.

There is no other player at the club with the same vision, composure and spatial awareness in that central striker role. In fact, there are few comparable in Europe.

“I know one or two but I don’t want to say their names,” Klopp said in a back room at Turf Moor on Saturday night, before slightly reconsidering his answer, given Firmino’s sheer range of abilities.

“Being skilled like Bobby is one thing. Mix it up with the attitude he puts in, that’s unbelievable. Skill-wise, being there, passing in between and stuff like that, for sure there are some players. Not really a lot but some. But to mix those? Wow, it’s exceptional.”

Firmino’s work is often said to go unappreciated – so often that, if anything, the opposite is now true – but he largely escaped scrutiny for a 2018-19 campaign that underwhelmed at times, falling below his usual standards.

Roberto Firmino tries an acrobatic finish (PA)

Moving to a deeper position as part of Klopp’s switch to a 4-2-3-1 in the early part of last season did not help, though form and fatigue were just as much of an issue.

A return of 16 goals and 8 assists was good by most measures, but not for a player of Firmino’s ability in an attack as prolific as Liverpool’s, and particularly not when compared to 27 goals he scored and 17 he set up the previous year. ​

Firmino’s 5.52 xA was lower than the likes of Alex Iwobi, Nathan Redmond and Gylfi Sigurdsson, while Ashley Barnes and Aleksandar Mitrovic ranked better in xG.

But four games into Liverpool’s faultless start to the new season, he appears to be back to his very best. See, for instance, the glorious swivel and volley in the opening game against Norwich City and his nonchalant look towards the bench when the attempt was saved.

Watch his angled finish against Southampton a week later, having dodged the attention of several defenders, or the ridiculous flick, scoop and shot which nearly sent Dani Ceballos back to the Real Madrid substitutes’ bench.

And then at Turf Moor on Saturday, there was Firmino doing what he has always done best: pressing high, asking questions of opponents in possession and turning defence into attack.

Ben Mee will rue his misplaced pass which led to the second goal, but he was forced into it by Firmino’s presence. It came minutes after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross had looped in off the back of Chris Wood, but for this second goal, Liverpool had made their own luck.

That is what Firmino brings that Salah, Mané, Divock Origi or indeed Wijnaldum do not. Liverpool will need all that tenacity over the next nine months if they are to go one better than last year domestically and win the Premier League title.

Two years ago, in his debut year, Salah was Klopp’s outstanding performer. Last season, Mané stepped up to the plate. Perhaps this year, the third member of Liverpool’s attacking triumvirate will prove why he is just as irreplaceable.