#3 Roberto Firmino
In an analogy to recent Liverpool teams, Firmino is closest to Dirk Kuyt. His work-rate, desire and ability to score crucial goals are exactly what the Dutchman provided to Liverpool in a distinguished career at Anfield. But Firmino’s positional sense is better than Kuyt's and he brings the skills that any Brazilian would.
Today, Firmino was the best player on the pitch, by a countrymile. He held the ball up in West Brom's half, but it was almost never down to his physical strength. He got into difficult areas of the pitch to receive the ball. By difficult areas, we are talking about areas where West Brom players were present in numbers.
But that did not deter Firmino, he played his way through those situations and came away with the ball still at his feet. He kept evading tackles from West Brom defenders and kept getting Divock Origi and Philippe Coutinho into play.
He took his goal brilliantly, as he popped up in a goalscoring position, as he does so often. James Milner’s free-kick wasn’t the greatest. Lucas hopefully flicked it on from the edge of the area. Ideally, West Brom should have defended that, but Firmino got in on the blind side of Craig Dawson to slot an easy header past Ben Foster.
He should have had an assist too, but James Milner missed what was an easy volley from a few yards out.
