2018/19 Season Report Card - Roberto Firmino

Maybe it’s just me, and this might be an unpopular view, but I never felt like Bobby fully got going this season. He was good, but he only reached the heights of the 17/18 season in fits and starts. 

You know his attitude and commitment is always going to be there, but I felt like he suffered early in the season, initially from not having much of a break over the summer, and then from Klopp changing the system to 4-2-3-1.

Bobby as a number nine in the front three is brilliant. I wouldn’t swap him for any centre forward in the world. Genuinely, there’s no-one I’d rather have. He’s perfect for how we play and is vitally important in so many aspects of our game. 

Bobby in any other role though just isn’t as effective. With Klopp using Salah up top and Firmino behind, it just never looked right to me. It never looks right when Bobby goes out wide either, although his phenomenal work ethic does make us stronger defensively than when Mo is out there.

I quite liked the tactic of switching them over late in games when we had a lead, but I’m not keen on us starting that way.

To me, Bobby is just not the same when he isn’t the number nine and the fulcrum of our attack. He sets the tone and everyone plays off him. When he wasn’t in that role we still got results because we’re a great team, but it wasn’t as free flowing as last season.

Firmino still had his moments, with a late winner against PSG and a hat-trick at home to Arsenal the obvious highlights, but in general this year’s Bobby wasn’t as dynamite as last year’s Bobby. 

He got off to a slow start and prior to that hat-trick against Arsenal on Dec 29 he had only scored six goals. While his contribution to the team can’t simply be measured in goals *cough* Harry Kane *cough*, six goals in 26 games isn’t what you’d expect, especially after how many he scored the season before.

As I said, the system change didn’t really help him and there were times when it looked like he just couldn’t get into the game and looked frustrated. The thing with Bobby is he’s a workaholic and he has to be involved. He’s not going to stand around and wait for the ball to come to him, he goes and gets it.

When he’s the nine, the ball comes his way naturally and he can work across the line and come short and do whatever it takes to be involved in the game. When he played as the ten it was different. He ended up coming deeper and deeper to get the ball and there were times when he was picking it up off the centre backs like Hendo or Fabinho.

His work ethic was admirable but that change in set up often left him looking like a spare one at a wedding. He’s the ultimate team guy though so you’d never hear him complaining or see him showing any signs of frustration. He just does what’s needed, even when it means others get the glory for his hard work.

It’s not even that he was out of form or playing poorly, he just didn’t seem able to make his usual kind of impact, and I do put a lot of that down to 4-2-3-1.

The notable exception to that was the Arsenal game when he banged in a hat-trick. One was a tap in and another was a penalty, but the second one was glorious. Generally though, based on everything I’ve seen, Bobby is twice the player when he’s the nine than he is when he plays anywhere else.

The second half of his season was better than the first, but an injury picked up in training ahead of the Huddersfield game basically ended his season early. He returned for the final but he had no sharpness or rhythm and it showed.

As I say, it felt like he never got into his stride at any point. It was fits and starts. Of course the great thing about Bobby is even if he’s not dazzling he’s still contributing a lot with what he does off the ball.

He’s one of our most important players but the closing weeks off the season showed that we can cope without him much better than I thought we would. We’re a better team when he plays, but at least we know we can win without him if necessary.

We might need to do that again in the opening weeks of next season as his involvement in Copa America may see him get an extended rest. The problem is that Sadio and Mo are also away on tournament duty and we can’t leave all three of them out to start the season.

Generally Bobby is pretty indestructible but given the injury problems he had at the end of the season it is a bit of a concern that the lack of rest might catch up with him. Like Mo and Sadio, he’s played solidly for two whole years with only a few weeks off.

Next year is massive for us with all the games we’re going to have, so we could have done without all three of our forwards playing through the entire summer like this. The start of the season might be quite tricky for us.

Rating 7.5 / 10

I accept this might be a little harsh. Maybe an 8 would have been fairer, but *shrugs* it is what it is. He’s still boss, he just wasn’t as boss as he was the year before.

Best Moment: 

The goal against Arsenal when he slalomed past three defenders and left them all on the seat of their shorts was a thing of beauty, but coming off the bench to score a last minute winner against PSG (and then doing the one eye celebration) was the best moment.

Worst Moment:

Rushing back from injury to face Barca and then re-aggravating it, causing him to miss the second leg and be a shadow of his normal self in the final.

The future?

I worry he might get off to a slow start but I still expect him to be great next year, especially if we sign another forward who can come in and allow us to freshen things up rather than have to keep picking ‘the big three’ and running them into the ground.