Now Firmino shows Brazil how it’s done

ROBERTO FIRMINO is on the verge of turning himself into a world star now he is playing the same role for Liverpool and Brazil, says Jurgen Klopp.

He is backing his forward to steal the show in today’s Merseyside derby.

“Brazil have a really good squad and Roberto has been playing around [a main striker] and a little bit behind. If you saw the games, he didn’t score but set up nearly all the situations. It was unbelievable.

“You ask, ‘How did they have that much space in and around the box’, and it was Roberto all over the pitch. Tite [the Brazil manager] obviously likes the way we play. There is a guy on his staff who speaks English and we had a lot of contact – and, although I’m not 100 per cent sure, I think he wants to do something similar [to us].”

Firmino, above, and Philippe Coutinho played for Brazil against Paraguay in the early hours of Wednesday before being whisked back from Sao Paulo in a jet laid on by the club.

Klopp said it was worth it. “When I saw them, I thought they would look tired but they had big smiles.”

The Liverpool boss, who will be without Adam Lallana for up to four weeks with a thigh injury and is still without his skipper Jordan Henderson, who has a foot problem, could be forced into a slight formation change today.

But he has one eye on how Liverpool can stop Romelu Lukaku, which almost certainly involves deploying someone to keep Ross Barkley quiet.

“He’s difficult to defend against and he has all our respect,” said Klopp of the big Belgian.

“But strikers need passes and support from other players. I think about how we can avoid this.

“When we analysed them, I could see that Everton are confident. But I can’t think of one reason why we shouldn’t be confident.”