Bruce: Firmino has qualities similar to Cantona

[tlw content]

Steve Bruce has continued to lavish praise on Liverpool after the Reds 3-1 victory against Newcastle on Saturday.

Often managers give faint praise to their opposition, while mainly focusing on their own team but the Magpies manager was honest in his assessment claiming the Reds are ‘an excellent, excellent team’ and ‘as good you can get.’

This time around, Bruce focused solely on an individual, that being the tireless Roberto Firmino.

The Brazilian has a tremendous blend to his game of guile and grunt.

 

While Firmino‘s teammates, manager and fans have recognized his qualities for a good while, it seems his play is finally getting the wider acclaim and high praise it deserves.

The Mirror reported Bruce as saying:

Look, Cantona is as good a player as I’ve ever seen. I haven’t seen Firmino week in week out but….

“Firmino is similar to Cantona in that he drifts into that little area and he naturally does it, where it’s so difficult for defenders to go.

“I haven’t seen him week in week out like Eric but just when you see him here today and what he gives them, it’s a perfect balance. And Cantona gave us that.

“Back in the day, we had Giggs and Kanchelskis who had frightening pace and stretched sides so much like Liverpool’s two, and Cantona dropped into that hole and people couldn’t get anywhere near him. 

“That’s what you see with Firmino.”

The veteran manager said the reason the Liverpool front three are so potent is that they tick all the boxes required in terms of elite forward play.

 

“Firmino is the one that drops in, but the pace of the other two is frightening. He drops in and the other two are running over your shoulder.

“His attitude and work rate, it’s so important.

Bruce says that Liverpool are a team which instills fear into the opposition and therefore incredibly difficult to contain.

“Back when I played for United, everybody suddenly started playing one centre forward against us.

“Back in the day, everyone played with two, then suddenly they would put an extra midfield player in, and it’s what you have to do because you are under threat of getting a hiding.

“And a team like Liverpool, they have two full backs up the pitch, they attack at every opportunity, then you face being blown away. 

“They can do that to you, and you have to acknowledge that.

“If you open up against sides like this then… the big difficulty we all have, is you have to find a way when you know a team is far better than you – and I say that with no disrespect at all to us – then you have to find a way.”

“That is Liverpool now, like City a team opponents fear to provoke. And that is the biggest progress they have made over the past 12 months.”

It is a another sign of how far we have come that the opposition are showering us with fulsome praise.

 Respect is not earned lightly and now we have that and deservedly so.

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[Guest]

I look forward to the day that Bobby performs a flying dropkick on a Crystal Palace fan and opens a tin of sardines without looking at it.

[Section_31]

Was Cantona actually 'that' good? Serious question as I find it hard to judge looking back.

 

He was one of a very few foreign players in the league but didn't seem to be respected in his own country or internationally.  

 

Most of his media and advertising appeal seems to stem from the fact he's bonkers. 

 

You also have to view everything through the prism of the Mancs' marketing and PR machine too. Sticking your collar up and having Jim Smith tell the Mirror you're better than Zidane I suspect wouldn't cut it in 2019.

[shouter]

5 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Was Cantona actually 'that' good? Serious question as I find it hard to judge looking back.

 

He was one of a very few foreign players in the league but didn't seem to be respected in his own country or internationally.  

 

Most of his media and advertising appeal seems to stem from the fact he's bonkers. 

 

You also have to view everything through the prism of the Mancs' marketing and PR machine too. Sticking your collar up and having Jim Smith tell the Mirror he's better than Zidane I suspect wouldn't cut it in 2019.

Well that’s one thing they’ve both got in common is they’re both bonkers. Bobby in a good way tho as cantona was a snidey cunt.

[Chairman Meow]

11 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

Was Cantona actually 'that' good? Serious question as I find it hard to judge looking back.

 

He was one of a very few foreign players in the league but didn't seem to be respected in his own country or internationally.  

 

Most of his media and advertising appeal seems to stem from the fact he's bonkers. 

 

You also have to view everything through the prism of the Mancs' marketing and PR machine too. Sticking your collar up and having Jim Smith tell the Mirror you're better than Zidane I suspect wouldn't cut it in 2019.

 

Cantona was pretty good I think. Just really fucking annoying as he always seemed to be the player who screwed us up, plus he was as mad as a box of frogs.

 

The lack of France caps was mainly down to him having arguments with the management rather than ability if I remember rightly. 

[Trumo]

2 hours ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

I look forward to the day that Bobby performs a flying dropkick on a Crystal Palace fan and opens a tin of sardines without looking at it.

 

I think it's more likely to be a capoeira roundhouse.

[Barrington Womble]

I hate to say it, but cantona was very good. I would say he was the difference that took them from no league in 20-odd years to the title. The season they signed him they didn't look like they knew how to score, they dropped him in and they were pretty unstoppable in an attacking sense. 

 

As @chevettehs says, he didn't play for France because he was a fucking nut job and had fallen out with the management. 

[deiseach]

Whatever about Cantona, Bruce is some fucking crawler. Ashley picked his (boss's) man well.

[Dr Nowt]

I thought Cantona was a class player. I noted my teenage self went from loving watching him as a neutral to despising him overnight when he left Leeds, for some reason, which somewhat clouded my impartiality on him. 

 

Solid unit as well as mental, on top of the touch, vision and skill, so he couldn’t just be booted out of the let’s be fair somewhat more agricultural English game back then.

 

The international stuff isn’t really a fair charge for reason stated (the accounts and videos of his “enfant terrible” outbursts in France are amusing) but it’s true he underwhelmed for United in Europe in a side which self-evidently was built for him with a manager who indulged him totally.

 

Domestically though, he was a cut above for a few years. Would have loved him to play for us.

[VladimirIlyich]

52 minutes ago, Barry Wom said:

I hate to say it, but cantona was very good. I would say he was the difference that took them from no league in 20-odd years to the title. The season they signed him they didn't look like they knew how to score, they dropped him in and they were pretty unstoppable in an attacking sense. 

 

As @chevettehs says, he didn't play for France because he was a fucking nut job and had fallen out with the management. 

Yes he was. He was also the catalyst for the rest of the team to take inspiration from. A lot like Bobby in that way although Firmino is less of an individual and far more of a team player.

[Barrington Womble]

1 hour ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Yes he was. He was also the catalyst for the rest of the team to take inspiration from. A lot like Bobby in that way although Firmino is less of an individual and far more of a team player.

Yeah, he was deffo the catalyst. He was exactly what they needed at that point, both in a football sense and a self confidence / arrogance sense. 

[m0e]

Cantona was brilliant. I think he fell out with Papin and the French sided with the latter.

[magicrat]

Is it seagulls and trawlers time yet?

[KMD7]

Cantona was fantastic for United, domestically at least.

[aws]

He was a perfect fit. Or so so Leslie Ash said.  

[Biscao]

The French team in the late 90s was all about the team, Guirvach or whatever he was called could hardly run or kick the ball, but played as a lone striker. Cantona didn't fit, but he was class back then on the pitch.

[El Dangerous]

Who gives a fuck what he thinks.

[General Dryness]

Did he just call Wor Bobby a cunt?