Robin van Persie was blown away by Liverpool attacker Roberto Firmino following his performance in the 4-1 win over Genk.
The former Arsenal player was left in awe of the Brazilian’s first 45 minutes for the Reds in their latest Champions League display and was lost for words over the forward’s backheel pass to Mane.
Van Persie even claimed that at one point Firmino had three unbelievable touches in the space of six to seven seconds, and just seemed to enjoy getting to watch the attacker do his thing.
“The player I really really enjoyed watching in the first-half was Firmino,” said Van Persie on BT Sport 1 (20:55, Wednesday October 23rd).
“The touches he had, at one point he had three unbelievable touches in the space of six to seven seconds.
“The highlight was that backheel pass to Mane, mwah! That was…”
OPINION
Firmino may not have got on the scoresheet against Genk, but Van Persie seemed so eager at half-time to talk about him, it was wonderful to see. The Arsenal player was supposed to be talking about Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain following him opening the scoring, but the retired forward seem to say the bare minimum before turning his attention to Firmino. It’s no surprise that Firmino was all Van Persie wanted to talk about as the Brazilian’s silky touches were worthy of a highlight reel, just as they usually are. However while the 28-year-old’s sublime touches are worth gushing about, he does bring more to the table as far as Jurgen Klopp is concerned. Firmino is a constant thorn in his opponent’s side, shown by the fact he has averaged 3.1 shots, 1.2 key passes and 2.2 dribbles across his nine league outings this season, as per WhoScored, and isn’t afraid to drop deep in order to get the ball back for his side. The 28-year-old has seen his efforts rewarded this season, as he has scored three goals and registered three assists in his league outings, and more impressively, he shows no signs of slowing down.
