Roberto Firmino

[thegreatelephant]

Yeah, or a striker who can literally make something out of nothing. As you say another top wide player would help no end.

 

often Macmanaman got us out of a deadlock home game late on many a time. a good dribbler. or sheer pace like Mane' of course

[Adebisi]

I reckon he'd have about 10 more goals if Cou didn't get injured and Mane didn't go away on international duty.

[LFC 6 Times]

I reckon he'd have about 10 more goals if Cou didn't get injured and Mane didn't go away on international duty.

He simply doesn't shoot enough to get that many goals.

[The Woolster]

More shots per 90 minutes than Costa, Kane, and Lukaku

[Herp McDerp]

More shots per 90 minutes than Costa, Kane, and Lukaku

 

Thereby proving he's a terrible finisher. Checkmate atheists.

[Torvald Utne]

Suárez's goal return this season is, in isolation, extremely disappointing. He's scored six goals from 21 appearances, a similar record to West Brom's Shane Long, and worse than Norwich's Steve Morison or Bolton's Ivan Klasnic. It's hardly unprecedented for a striker to arrive from the Eredivisie and be significantly less prolific in the Premier League, but Suárez is clearly no Afonso Alves or Mateja Kezman – he's not overawed by the league, he's not playing badly, he's just not scoring enough.

 

 

Six goals doesn't look much better when you consider that Suárez has 4.2 shots per game – only Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie have more, and they've scored 18 and 25 goals respectively. But shots per game is a statistic open to interpretation and debate, and Suárez epitomises the uncertainly with which it should be viewed. Players with a high shots per game rate are generally exceptional performers – from Europe's top five leagues, first and second by that measure are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The main thing this says is that they're constant threat, which is something Suárez – to a lesser extent – also offers.

[joe_fishfish]

Was that from the season where we hit the post a record number of times?

[TheHowieLama]

#ifithadntabeenforthepost

[cloggypop]

It's a post-truth world

[G Richards]

I think another wide attacker will help. Shame we weren't able to sign Draxler.

 

Firmino, to my mind, is a very good player. He should score a few more and he probably will, but obviously he's not an out and out striker. The point is well made that we should consider the goal scoring productivity of the whole team, not just him. We could have a regular 20 a season man instead and overall not be as potent in attack as now. It's a nuanced issue.

 

The biggest thing for me is the depth. When the front six are all available it's a rare day we don't win. We need to add the same sort of quality so we don't skip a beat when one or two are inevitably missing for whatever reason. That's the biggest problem to me.

 

Firmino is an integral part of that front six, and as such he's doing very well... though he could do with a few more goals.

[mgw100]

It's not the goal count, or lack of, that bothers me about Firmino. It's the days where his first touch and passing are both abject. His highs are good and/or very good, his lows are very low indeed.

[aRdja]

It's not the goal count, or lack of, that bothers me about Firmino. It's the days where his first touch and passing are both abject. His highs are good and/or very good, his lows are very low indeed.

If he was scoring 25 goals a season, wouldn't have been too much of a problem, would it?

[stringvest]

It's not the goal count, or lack of, that bothers me about Firmino. It's the days where his first touch and passing are both abject. His highs are good and/or very good, his lows are very low indeed.

 

 

Yep.  The good days are too rare.  That's the thing he has to fix, if he can.

[jimmycase]

Jesus fucking christ, people expect everyone of our 'attacking' players to weigh in with 25 goals a season now.

 

If the goals are spread around the team you dont need a 25 goal a season striker. In fact, depending on one player to score you 25 a season puts you in a bad place when he's injured, suspended or just out of form.

 

Bobby's doing great.

[Herp McDerp]

Jesus fucking christ, people expect everyone of our 'attacking' players to weigh in with 25 goals a season now.

 

If the goals are spread around the team you dont need a 25 goal a season striker. In fact, depending on one player to score you 25 a season puts you in a bad place when he's injured, suspended or just out of form.

 

Bobby's doing great.

 

You're a bit of a hysterical fanny aren't you?

[FrenchEyeGlass]

Jesus fucking christ, people expect everyone of our 'attacking' players to weigh in with 25 goals a season now.

 

If the goals are spread around the team you dont need a 25 goal a season striker. In fact, depending on one player to score you 25 a season puts you in a bad place when he's injured, suspended or just out of form.

 

Bobby's doing great.

Yikes, this was trump-esque levels of spinning a conversation. Nobody expected all of our attackers to chip in with 25 goals, who the hell as said that in the entirety of this thread?

 

As the lead striker and the focal point of our attack, I expect Firmino to be scoring closer to 25 than he will this season. He misses so many fucking chances it's infuriating.

 

I agree he's doing okay. But he needs to improve his finishing if he wants to lead our line on the way to honours.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ne Moe Imya]

Scoring goals has hardly been our problem this season.  Firmino is fine, I'm perfectly happy to go into next season with the same front 3 (Coutinho-Firmino-Mane) as this season as long as we add a bit of depth behind them.

 

It would also be nice to maybe have a bit of a different striker so that we can change it up and go 4-4-2 diamond or maybe 4-2-3-1 whenever we're playing the bottom sides and having trouble breaking through, but that's nitpicking.  

 

Honestly, as long as the starting front 3 are scoring 40 league goals or more between them, I don't really care how they're distributed.  If Coutinho gets 15 and Mane gets 15 and Firmino only scores 10 a season, that's fine.  We need about 75 league goals total to pretty much assure ourselves of top four, so if those three get 40 and their backups get another 10 or 15 that leaves a pretty comfortably attainable task for the midfield/defense to complete.

[Lee909]

It has been a issue the past two months. Teams are sitting deep snd we are struggling. We need a different option

[SlugTrail]

Which is why we are looking at wide forwards. I Love little Phil but he doesn't stay wide, he drifts inside to much un like Mane. Having wide forwards either side might help to stretch teams a little.

[Carvalho Diablo]

It has been a issue the past two months. Teams are sitting deep snd we are struggling. We need a different option

Nothing wrong in mixing it up by sticking some high balls in the box. Even if you don't win the initial header, if you have plenty of players in and around then you feed off the scraps and cause damage that way.

[lifetime fan]

I'd rather Coutinho was played in the midfield 3 at home to the dross and we had a more pacey, consistent goal scorer in the front 3.

[Carvalho Diablo]

Which is why we are looking at wide forwards. I Love little Phil but he doesn't stay wide, he drifts inside to much un like Mane. Having wide forwards either side might help to stretch teams a little.

Very true.

 

I'd still be intrigued to see how we'd change if we gave Phil a decent run in the midfield. For example, Hendo - Lallana - Coutinho with Firmino - Mane and another pacey wideman up front.

 

Edit : just seen Lifey's post above !

[lifetime fan]

Great minds mate.

[VladimirIlyich]

I think another wide attacker will help. Shame we weren't able to sign Draxler.

 

Firmino, to my mind, is a very good player. He should score a few more and he probably will, but obviously he's not an out and out striker. The point is well made that we should consider the goal scoring productivity of the whole team, not just him. We could have a regular 20 a season man instead and overall not be as potent in attack as now. It's a nuanced issue.

 

The biggest thing for me is the depth. When the front six are all available it's a rare day we don't win. We need to add the same sort of quality so we don't skip a beat when one or two are inevitably missing for whatever reason. That's the biggest problem to me.

 

Firmino is an integral part of that front six, and as such he's doing very well... though he could do with a few more goals.

Draxler wasn't doing that well for Wolfsburg and I'm surprised he was on PSGs radar when they signed him. He seems to put money above most else if you look at his defections from Schalke and then Wolfsburg. Yunus Malli left Mainz during January transfer window and Mainz are struggling a bit since. It seems Malli may have been Draxler's replacement at Wolfsburg,actually.

[Lee909]

I'd rather Coutinho was played in the midfield 3 at home to the dross and we had a more pacey, consistent goal scorer in the front 3.

Yeah against shite teams no reason we cant get a good ball winner and play Lalalala and Coutinho in a midfield three.