11 Jan 2018 07:07:45
I see some fretting has begun in regards to Firmino next to leave.
While he's clearly a very good player, I wouldn't be at all worried if it happened, so long as we actively signed someone to go up top immediately and not waited until the next window or season to replace.
He bring a lot of qualities and this season he has brought more goals than he has ever done, but just like Salah is proving, players who we think will be good for the club sometimes exceed expectations and blow us away.
Did anybody see Suarez to be as good as he was for example?
I have seen it over and over again at our club; Whelan, Souness, Kenny, Hanson, Houghton, Rush, Beardsley, Aldridge, Nichol, Grobbelaar, McManaman, Fowler, Barnes, Owen, Torres, Suarez, Gerrard and now Coutinho.
We always move on, just like the player.
Nothing to fret about.

1.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 07:48:19
But how many of those players did we replace adequately and reach equal successes? Personally, I think firmino is one of the best players in the league. What's more, I don't think many other clubs have noticed it yet either. I'm sure it's only a matter of time before a scout sees his worth.

2.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 08:08:17
The only worry with losing Firmjno is that he is really unique in the way he drops deep to create space and chances for others, but also presses relentlessly.

We've all seen players like Messi and Fabregas play false 9 positions where they drop to create, and we've all seen players like Lewandowski or even Ings who can press from the front. The difference is, Firmino does both. He wins possession back more than any other forward in Europes top 5 leagues, and he is also the 9th top scorer in the Premier league with 9 goals, the 2nd top scorer in the Champions league with 7 goals, as well as having assisted 8 goals in all competitions. So not only is he statistically the best at pressing in Europe, but he has also had a direct hand in 24 goals this season in about 30-ish appearances. What more can you realistically ask for from a player?

People say Firmino only has 9 league goals. So what? That's only 1 behind Lukaku, Morata and Rooney who are the main goal scorers at their clubs, and 1 ahead of Lacazette who is Arsenals main goal scorer. All this rubbish about needing a 30 goal a season striker to win the league is exactly that; rubbish. City won the league with Yaya Toure as top scorer with 20 goals and in the same season we had Suarez on 31 and Sturridge on 23. Your top scorer is totally irrelevant to your league position. Harry Kane is the best goal scorer in Europe and Spurs can't even get into the top 4. The "30+ striker" argument is so simple minded it is painful to read.

I hate to be so blunt about it, but anybody who still doesn't rate Firmino, or at least appreciate him, really doesn't understand football. Not accusing you of that by the way Kev as i know your post wasn't an attack on Bobby (but it will attract replies that are, trust me) . If he left, we'd cope. We are bigger than any one player. However, we'd quite simply have to change our style of play. Suarez is the only other striker I've seen in recent years who can press, create and score as well as Firmino, but he is nearly 31 and in decline. He only has about 6 or 7 goals this season in all competitions. I know a lot of people really rate Fekir but I've not seen enough of him in live games to know if he is effective at pressing the ball.

As i say, we'd move on and reinvent ourselves if we had to, but Firmino is so under rated, it is criminal. Replacing him like for like would be harder than replacing Salah in my opinion. Luckily, i think Firmino is an honest and humble player who appreciates what he has more than he pines for what he doesn't. Win a few trophies and pay him well and i can see him staying for another 5-8 years; Lucas did it so why not Bobby?

3.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 08:36:08
As Ed 2 would say, "Players are transient employees of the club".

4.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 08:37:49
MK, I do feel quite more hopeful of Bobby staying than I ever did about Coutinho, however, a big factor in Lucas staying was that he was never good enough to attract overwhelming interest from the usual suspects in Spain. At his peak, he was a very good defensive midfielder for us, but that peak only lasted about one season. He was never going to have Barcelona knocking on his door offering a realistic prospect of nailing down a role as a starter every week.

5.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 09:18:46
True StableG, but Lucas attracted the interest of top teams in Italy every year for the last 5 years at the club and never once kicked up a fuss or tried to force anything until he was no longer needed. Happy 31st birthday to Lucas by the way. It was a couple of days ago now!

6.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 09:42:14
Juventus has been the only top team in Italy for the past 5 years, and I doubt he would have found much game time there.

7.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 09:52:18
Bobby is integral to the way JK wants to play and we haven't got a player to match him. The guy is more skilful than given credit for and one player I would dearly love us to tie up for several seasons. Will be interesting to see how progresses now PC is at Barcelona but if he's got his head screwed on then I'd have him in the team at every opportunity.

8.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 09:53:13
And even Lucas left and won a trophy with Lazio instantly.

Bottom line is that we need to win trophies, not one off, but regularly and need to challenge for the title for us to be able to attract good players and keep good players.

Firmino is a top player and would be very difficult to replace. I hope he stay a while. He has 16 goals in all competition which is a very decent return from someone who is not meant to be an out and out striker.

9.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 10:16:52
Weren't Juventus interested in Lucas around 2015? I'm sure that Juventus and AC Milan both enquired about his availability at one stage. Inter Milan and Napoli certainly did, and Lazio have since signed him.

Italian football knows a good holding midfielder when they see one and Lucas was repeatedly linked to their top clubs, such was his unappreciated ability. Even though he had Italian heritage though, he stayed for his love of Liverpool.

10.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 10:19:32
Sorry I can’t find the details but which teams are actively looking to buy Firminho. He’s one player who I haven’t read about regarding anyone looking to buy him unlike Couts, Salah, Mane last season and Can. I don’t read as much foreign correspondence as some of you guys but am interested to know which teams are interested and is it concrete interest?
Hopefully after Coutinho and Can we can put the exodus of our better players on hold for a season or two.

11.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 10:30:04
Do any other big teams use our style and would they therefore covet Firmino? Play him as a standard number 10 or winger and he's far less effective. It seems nearly anyone who can afford him would also have to change their style to accommodate him anyway. I haven't seen any links, let's just enjoy what he does for the team.

12.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 11:56:33
I know Guardiola would love Firmino. If you could create a player from scratch and mould them into exactly what Pep looks for, it would be Firmino with less fake tan and darker teeth.

13.) 11 Jan 2018
11 Jan 2018 12:17:21
One player doesn't make a team, with the exception of Messi in all truth.
Firmino is just as replaceable as Mignolet or any other individual you can think of - there is always a bigger dog in another garden than your own.

Most people are either too young to remember, choose not to remember or are just looking for an excuse to complain or moan about owners, Klopp, Edwards etc.

Of course we never reached the heights we did in the 80's because we had poor management i. e. Souness ripped Kenny's squad apart and bought dross in like Stewart for Houghton, Clough in for Beardsley, Walters for Barnes, Torben Piknic for Hanson and so on - he overhauled that squad poorly and far too quickly.
Back in the glory days, we lost, Keegan, Kenny (as a player), Thompson, McDermott and so, but replaced with quality.

I trust Klopp to replace Coutinho or anyone else who moves on, you should too - he is the best man for the job right now.

Every club loses big name players, even Barcelona themselves - Neymar, Ronaldo (the Brazilian), Romario, Stoichkov, Figo went to Real directly from Barcelona for goodness sake - the biggest insult of all in European football probably, but they survived.

Imagine if we sold Coutinho to United/ Everton.

Fret not, not a single player in that squad of ours is irreplaceable.

Good luck to Pep Lijnders by the way!