Sue Smith heaped praise on Liverpool attacker Roberto Firmino after watching his performance in the Reds’ 3-1 win over Newcastle United.
The Sky Sports pundit claimed the Brazilian was the star of the show for Jurgen Klopp’s side against the Magpies on Saturday and even revealed that she had watched a three-and-a-half-minute clip dedicated to the player’s touches.
Smith then revealed why she thinks Firmino is able to excel for Liverpool as she pointed out that the forward likes to drop deep, which leads to defenders not closely marking him as they don’t want to be lured out of position.
“He was the star of the show and I watched a three and a half minute clip of him and his touches, absolute quality and he’s just so intelligence, his spatial awareness of the players around him,” said Smith on Sky Sports News (10:39am, Monday, September 16th).
“The fact he drops in (to midfield), he’ll drops in so defenders won’t come out and press him as they don’t want to come out of position as Salah and Mane will go in, midfielders don’t want to pick him up, so he’s in those little pockets.
“And when he is on the ball, you always think something is going to happen.”
OPINION
There’s no denying that Firmino was anything short but sensational on Saturday so it’s no surprise that Smith ended up being so in awe of him that she watched a video dedicated to him. The 27-year-old was brought off the bench to replace the injured Divock Origi in the 36th minute of the match, and it was easy to see how he was able to change the game in the Reds’ favour upon coming on. Firmino registered one assist and made four key passes, which was more than any player on the pitch (Source: WhoScored), and Newcastle simply couldn’t find a way to stop him finding space in and around their box. Smith mentioned how defenders don’t like marking Firmino as due to him dropping deep they get worried about being pulled out of position, however, given how impactful he was from the moment he stepped on the pitch, you think Steve Bruce would have ordered one of his players to man-mark the 27-year-old.
