BERTHOV VEN OF THE KOP
Klopp: Firmino is the maestro in our orchestra.. he’s very important to the rhythm of the team. He’s a complete footba
LIVERPOOL ATALANTA Champions League: 8pm
ROBERTO FIRMINO is the conductor of Liverpool’s orchestra – and his teammates believe he’s a maestro.
That is the message from om manager Jurgen Klopp, , who explained that the outpouring of joy from the Reds players, when the Brazilian scored at the weekend, was a show w of anger from them at the criticism the striker has received.
Firmino has scored only three league goals at Anfield in 20 months, and his two goals this season are in stark contrast to his rival for a place, Diogo Jota (inset above), who has eight goals in just 12 appearances.
But Klopp says there is so much more to the Samba star than bare statistics. “Scoring was always important for Bobby. But Bobby is a complete footballer,” he explained.
“A football team is like an orchestra, you have different people for different instruments. And some of them are louder than others, but they are all important for the rhythm.
“Bobby plays like 12 instruments in our orchestra! He’s very important for our rhythm.
“We can play well w without him as well, b but I certainly want h him on the pitch and if you look at the num numbers, I like it a lot having him on the pitch. Really awesome.”
Jota’s output this season has been remarkable for his new club. He is the first player in Liverpool history to have scored in each of his first four league appearances at Anfield, and he has a shot-conversion rate of almost 30 per cent.
Firmino has had fewer shots and fewer shots on target, despite playing more games, while Jota has a far more impressive conversion rate for big chances. But Klopp points to the admiration of his team-mates as evidence of Firmino’s importance to the team.
The manager saw the emotion of the side when he scored (below) agains fierce r striker
Klop impor was th saw th emotio
“Ob
eicester and said it was a ponse to the criticism the as received. said: “This goal was very t, and what I loved most eaction of the boys. You celebration, it was really al. usly the players read newspapers, and they saw there was some criticism, so they were really happy for him to score.”
James Milner ( below, right) summed up the feelings of the players after the defeat of Leicester, and admitted that he would have been far more angry than the implacable Brazilian.
“I just said (after the game) t to him I think I’d have been a angrier than him. We are so d delighted he got his goal, thoroughly o deserved, I thought he w was brilliant.”
Firmino is likely to start as K Klopp looks to field a strong s side against Atalanta tonight.
Victory would ensure progress to the knockout stages, and allow him to rest players for the final two group games.
Firmino was missing from Liverpool’s open training session before the game against the Italians, but club officials said there are no injury concerns with the forward and he is expected to be fit for the tie.