Former Chelsea defender Mario Melchiot has lavished praise on Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino after his performance against the Blues on Sunday.
The 27-year-old bagged the crucial second goal as the Reds ran out 2-1 winners at Stamford Bridge, and Melchiot was very impressed by what the Brazilian did against his old team.
“Now we see how important that guy is,” he told talkSPORT [23/09; 07:26]. “He has everything you want as a striker. He can hold the ball up – he’s strong.
“He’s got a bit of badness in him. He can score goals, and he is very intelligent. He has all the ingredients that as a defender you wouldn’t like to face and as a team player you want to have in your team. That’s why he’s that good.”
OPINION
Melchiot was a quality player in his day and he can certainly recognise talent. Firmino has been having an unbelievable season, producing game after game of creative, cutting-edge brilliance. As Melchiot says, he has everything you want in a team player and in a frontman. However, his intelligence is the biggest thing. We saw it last week when he produced an incredible assist for Mohamed Salah’s goal, while he got on the scoresheet himself on Sunday. And he does have that bit of ‘badness’ in him, he can mix it up and commit nasty little fouls when they need to be committed. It does seem as if everyone is now waking up to how crucial Firmino is to this Liverpool side. Salah is the goalscorer extraordinaire, Sadio Mane the enigmatic livewire, but it’s Firmino who brings the best out of them while producing terrific individual performances himself. He did just that against Chelsea, and long may it continue.
