Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has gushed over Liverpool’s ‘unbelievable’ forward Roberto Firmino, but has named something he can’t do.
Neville watched Firmino and his teammates battle to a 1-1 draw with his old side at Old Trafford on Sunday. And, despite the Brazilian’s immense ability, Neville doesn’t feel he is a hugely prolific goalscorer.
“Liverpool play with three mobile strikers,” he told Sky Sports [05:42]. “Firmino doesn’t score 25 goals ever year. He does an unbelievable job.
“I love him to bits, but he doesn’t score 25 goals. We had strikers at Manchester United who didn’t score 25, 30 goals every year, but they did brilliant jobs.”
OPINION
These comments from Neville came within a debate about Man United’s Sunday goalscorer Marcus Rashford, and whether he is good enough through the middle to be United’s first choice number nine. So Neville was making the point that just because the England international isn’t the world’s most prolific attacker, that doesn’t mean he can’t do well at the position, with Firmino being a case in point. However, the Liverpool star not only produces consistently better performances than Rashford, but he is better in front of goal as well. His tallies from each of his four seasons to date at Anfield stand at: 11, 12, 27 and 16 [Source: Transfermarkt]. Then there’s Rashford, who over the same time period – although not playing as regularly at first – has recorded season tallies of: eight, 11, 13 and 13. So Firmino has bagged 67 goals over the past four campaigns, while Rashford has managed 45. When you consider their respective ages, that’s not a wholly unreasonable gap. Still, Firmino offers so much more in his overall play, so there’s still a long way to go for the Englishman.
