Robin van Persie joked that he would be stuck on the bench at Anfield if he had to compete with Liverpool attacking trio Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino for a place in the first-team.
The former Arsenal forward was asked by Gary Lineker who he would like to replace in Liverpool’s front three if he was to hypothetically play for Jurgen Klopp’s side and he cheekily claimed the bench beckoned for him.
“I would be on the bench I feel,” laughed Van Persie on BT Sport 1 (19:36, Wednesday, October 23rd).
Linker insisted that Van Persie would be good enough for the Reds’ first-team but he just continued to laugh off the question, which in turn saw him avoid answering.
OPINION
It was actually very classy of Van Persie not to pick a Liverpool attacker to drop out of Klopp’s side as clearly he would believe that at his peak, he could have been a success at Anfield. After all, the Dutchman scored 144 goals in 280 Premier League appearances, averaging a ridiculously good 0.51 goals per match (Source: Premier League), in his playing career so surely he is confident enough in his own skillset to think he could oust Salah, Mane or Firmino from the Reds’ first-team. However, the fact he opted to be cheeky instead, did show how highly he rated the Reds’ current front three and they should feel honoured that a forward of Van Persie’s calibre rates them the way he does. Liverpool’s front three are often praised, due to the sheer amount of goals they score, and given they seem to complement each other, then it is a difficult question to suggest which one you would axe first in favour of another top-quality striker.
