Pat Nevin shared how he was left baffled by Liverpool attacker Roberto Firmino as he thought the Brazilian made no impact during the 2-0 defeat to Red Star Belgrade on Tuesday.
The BBC pundit shared that he thought Sadio Mane was doing well on the left flank before he was moved over to the right side of the pitch, to allow Firmino to play on the left.
Nevin revealed he thought it was strange that Firmino was unable to make any form of difference during the match as it’s known that he is a fabulous player.
“I was talking about Mane he was doing well in the first half on the left-hand side, but in the second half on the right-hand side he didn’t do anything just about,” said Nevin on BBC Radio 5 Live (Tuesday November 6, 19:52).
“That left hand side was empty because Firmino had no impact in the game whatsoever which is strange because we all know he is a fabulous player.”
OPINION
Firmino, who earns a staggering £180,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac), has struggled to look at his best as of late and that situation didn’t change against Red Star. The 27-year-old attacker replaced Daniel Sturridge at the half-time break when his side were 2-0 down, clearly tasked with turning the game around. However upon entering the match Firmino looked chomping at the bit and full of fire, yet that fire was quickly put out. It was hard to remember that the Brazilian was actually playing by the time the full-time whistle went as Nevin is right to claim that the big-earner had no impact on the game. Given that Firmino was dropped for the Champions League clash, you feel he would have raised his game upon being brought on to show Jurgen Klopp that he was wrong to leave him on the bench. Yet the attacker just didn’t look capable of making his case as he just blended in with his struggling teammates.
