Wright: Firmino is so important to this Liverpool team

Catch 22 with Bobby.

He is the number 9 but doesn't score a lot.

Obviously, this means Mane and Salah score goals, apparently more goals than they might otherwise.

But they aren't strikers, so they miss more than a proper 9 might.

We could literally have been 4 up against Brighton, put the game to bed.

He misses loads of chances but we don't seem to perform when he doesn't play. 

5 minutes ago, aws said:

He misses loads of chances but we don't seem to perform when he doesn't play. 

What we replace him with is average.

56 minutes ago, Colonel Bumcunt said:

Catch 22 with Bobby.

 

He is the number 9 but doesn't score a lot.

Obviously, this means Mane and Salah score goals, apparently more goals than they might otherwise.

But they aren't strikers, so they miss more than a proper 9 might.

We could literally have been 4 up against Brighton, put the game to bed.

 

Salah"s been involved in a 100 Premier league goals quicker than any player other than Alan shearer. 

Only against villa we were utter shite before firmino came on, whose movement paved the way for manes goal. 

You'd think after four years people would get this and not still be talking utter shite about number 9s

26 minutes ago, J-V said:

What we replace him with is average.

Origi would score goals as a pure 9 in most other teams. Ings has proven that as well this season and he wasn't pulling up trees when he was coming off the bench here either. It's more of a stylistic issue. It's hard to replace a "false nine" like Firmino who drops deep and has creative responsibilities with players like Origi and Chamberlain, who whilst different, are at their core direct runners with fewer creative attributes. The team has to play differently when they're in the side and it's not an easy adjustment. 

Kuyt would have been a great 9 in this team.

Spot on this from Ian Wright, pointing out a few things that many on here have done already, but also quite a few people fail completely to see.

That said Bobby could and should improve his finishing, always room for improvement.

Bobby is ace for half of the time, we can or should find someone competing for his place and is just as good or close to it so he has someone to compete with and up his game. 

I do think he needs to be more of the number 9, and less of the false. We keep far too many men behind the ball when attacking, so we really need that 3rd attacker. 

1 minute ago, Horus said:

I do think he needs to be more of the number 9, and less of the false. We keep far too many men behind the ball when attacking, so we really need that 3rd attacker. 

Well we definately disagree then, cause I think he is instrumental to the way we play, and if he played more like a traditional 9 it would mean we’d have to change our system completely. Room for improvement on his finishing yes, change the way he plays it’s a big no from me.

1 minute ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

Well we definately disagree then, cause I think he is instrumental to the way we play, and if he played more like a traditional 9 it would mean we’d have to change our system completely. Room for improvement on his finishing yes, change the way he plays it’s a big no from me.

That's fair, we just see things differently. I don't think we need a false 9 when we don't have any midfield runners and can get bogged down 30 yards from goal, but Jurgens paid millions, and I'm posting on a forum...

The most overrated player I’ve ever seen play for us. The amount of attacks that break down due to him is unreal yet it all goes ignored because of this unseen work he does for the team. 
 

He’s the ultimate old fashioned hipsters favourite player. Everything’s been said about the players who deliver every week so they pick the least effective player and champion the slightest positive thing just so they can be different. 
 

If he was English with a normal haircut and couldn’t do a karate kick he’d be slaughtered on here. 
 

Unless he bags a couple in the last games this is going to be his worse goal scoring league season - probably significantly so. He hasn't really been on it all year oddly. He'd be hard pressed to score less next season.

I don't think the positional comments really bear fruit because he's been playing a similar role for a few years now, but has gone from a 1-in-2 man in all competitions to a 1-in-5. That's pretty drastic.

4 minutes ago, Red74 said:

The most overrated player I’ve ever seen play for us. The amount of attacks that break down due to him is unreal yet it all goes ignored because of this unseen work he does for the team. 
 

He’s the ultimate old fashioned hipsters favourite player. Everything’s been said about the players who deliver every week so they pick the least effective player and champion the slightest positive thing just so they can be different. 
 

If he was English with a normal haircut and couldn’t do a karate kick he’d be slaughtered on here. 
 

 

What the fuck are you drinking because I could do with a pint of it. "The most overrated player....."?

If he was English, he'd get slaughtered for being English pretty much like Hendo or Oxlaide Chamberlane do on here not because of what he does or doesnt do.

9 minutes ago, Red74 said:

The most overrated player I’ve ever seen play for us. The amount of attacks that break down due to him is unreal yet it all goes ignored because of this unseen work he does for the team. 
 

He’s the ultimate old fashioned hipsters favourite player. Everything’s been said about the players who deliver every week so they pick the least effective player and champion the slightest positive thing just so they can be different. 
 

If he was English with a normal haircut and couldn’t do a karate kick he’d be slaughtered on here. 
 

 

This is funny. You say he's a hipster player as if it's hard to see what he is good at and what his role is. It's really not. He's been here for 5 years, pretty much all of them successful. It's quite clear why he's important. 

Just now, dockers_strike said:

What the fuck are you drinking because I could do with a pint of it. "The most overrated player....."?

 

If he was English, he'd get slaughtered for being English pretty much like Hendo or Oxlaide Chamberlane do on here not because of what he does or doesnt do.

Its probably not as crazy as it sounds. When he's on it he's a great player, but in the here-and-now he's regressed from being a 1-in-2 striker playing the "false 9" type role with Mane & Salah to a 1-in-5 striker playign the "false 9" type role with Mane and Salah. But he's heralded probably more now than ever before as being the lynchpin to the side (you'd probably even find some who think hes our most or 2nd most important player). In that respect you could make an arguement he's over-rated (not to comment myself whether he is or isn't).

3 minutes ago, 3 Stacks said:

This is funny. You say he's a hipster player as if it's hard to see what he is good at and what his role is. It's really not. He's been here for 5 years, pretty much all of them successful. It's quite clear why he's important. 

He gets classed as a defensive forward now cos he doesn’t deliver going forward. Ultimate hipster language 

1 minute ago, Alex_K said:

Its probably not as crazy as it sounds. When he's on it he's a great player, but in the here-and-now he's regressed from being a 1-in-2 striker playing the "false 9" type role with Mane & Salah to a 1-in-5 striker playign the "false 9" type role with Mane and Salah. But he's heralded probably more now than ever before as being the lynchpin to the side (you'd probably even find some who think hes our most or 2nd most important player). In that respect you could make an arguement he's over-rated (not to comment myself whether he is or isn't).

I dont know about 'regressed' but he's certainly going through a rough patch. I thought that commentator and mcmanaman talked utter shite when he had that one come back off the post. "What do you think, Stevie, he looks to have a mental block or something?

What shite.

1 minute ago, Red74 said:

He gets classed as a defensive forward now cos he doesn’t deliver going forward. Ultimate hipster language 

No one calls him that outside of Twitter mongs and 15 year old's. That's not a thing. 

Just stick a Harry kane In there or Dominic solanke.   You can difnitely take their 39 goals a season and add it to our wide forwards, it would in no way shape or form take from them 

250 goals in 3 years is a pathetic return we need a properz number 9

4 minutes ago, dockers_strike said:

I dont know about 'regressed' but he's certainly going through a rough patch. I thought that commentator and mcmanaman talked utter shite when he had that one come back off the post. "What do you think, Stevie, he looks to have a mental block or something?

 

What shite.

Personally I thought he looked tired before heading to Qatar. He then scored a few after coming back but then trailed off again pretty quickly. He's now actually gone 12 consecutive league games without scoring which is pretty incredible for a striker in a leading team. Hopefully the summer break does him well and he bounces back strongly next year.

He is 29 in the autumn and time is not typically kind to Brazilian strikers but then he's not the typical style of Brazilian forward.

3 minutes ago, Alex_K said:

Personally I thought he looked tired before heading to Qatar. He's now actually gone 12 consecutive league games without scoring which is pretty incredible for a striker in a leading team. Hopefully the summer break does him well and he bounces back strongly next year.

 

He is 29 in the autumn and time is not typically kind to Brazilian strikers but then he's not the typical style of Brazilian forward.

He’s looking worse now after the Covid break.so I don’t think it’s exhaustion, I think it’s possibly complacency. He probably feels that his place is pretty much guaranteed. We desperately need competition for that no 9 role, and if Minamino isn’t going to be it then we need someone else who will be. 

20 minutes ago, aRdja said:

He’s looking worse now after the Covid break.so I don’t think it’s exhaustion, I think it’s possibly complacency. He probably feels that his place is pretty much guaranteed. We desperately need competition for that no 9 role, and if Minamino isn’t going to be it then we need someone else who will be. 

Yes could be. Whatever the reason, it needs to be fixed next season. I was two-feet firmly in the "Adrian put us out of European/FA Cup competition" camp, but having a striker whose goal rate in the past 50 games maps closely to Emile Heskey's worst seasons with us (and it sounds crazy to write that, but the goal rate really hasn't been that different when you look at it) is also a sure-fire way to run into trouble in elite 50/50 games.

Would love us to make another European Cup run next year (now that the league is off the back that's the one I'd always hope we win) so getting Bobby back to his 2017/18 best would go a long way to making that possible.

We need a midfielder who can do the player maker stuff and grafting that Bobby can do, we need a number 9 who is a threat infront of goal. We also need to keep Bobby. Our options are what fuck us over. Ox isn't good enough except for odd cameos, origi isn't good enough. Kieta in my opinion will be largely miss in a hit and miss Liverpool career as for minamino I've no idea it's too hard to say but if I had to guess I'd say he's not good enough either but well worth the gamble considering the fee. 

The side needs money spending on it. FSG need to invest in their investment. It's money going back into their own pocket. I guess rich people are rich because they can afford to buy shit then make it pay for itself, make a huge amount of money all without investing a single penny of their own outside of a loan.

There's no denying threat defensive work and link up play that firmino adds is a great asset and major part of our game. 

But there's also no denying he's a centre forward that doesn't score near enough goals either. 

He hasn't scored in anfield this season, that's just crazy. Throw in Harry Kane to his position and each of our forwards would have 20 goals a season. No doubt about it.