Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has raved about Roberto Firmino on the club’s official website ahead of the Premier League game against Manchester United today.
The Reds will take on United away from home at Old Trafford later today.
Firmino is likely to start alongside Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane in attack.
Salah has been hogging the headlines in recent weeks and so has Mane.
And rightly so.
And now Klopp has praised Brazil international forward Firmino, calling him “the best offensive defender” he has ever seen.
Jurgen Klopp’s verdict
Klopp told Liverpool’s official website about Firmino: “He is a very important player to us. He is a connector. He is the best offensive defender I ever saw in my life, definitely.
“He is a ball chaser, he is defensively incredibly smart with all the things he is doing. He is technically on the highest level, is able to play in the smallest spaces, the tiniest spaces. Can make incredibly good decisions in a really short time.
“And, on top of that, scores goals as well. That’s why we’re all so happy when from time to time he rewards himself with now a hat-trick last week or whatever.
“Really, everybody in the team loves it because obviously sometimes you think he is a bit short of getting the praise or whatever for the effort he puts in.”
Huge praise
Yes, you read that right – “the best offensive defender”.
Not Virgil van Dijk, not Joel Matip.
But Firmino.
And he is a forward.
Klopp’s aforementioned comments show just how highly he rates Firmino.
Now, there have been talks that the Brazilian forward is not at the level of Mane and Salah anymore.
Diogo Jota has done exceptionally well when he has played, and there have been calls for the Portugal international forward to be made a regular in the first team.
Klopp will be aware of the quality of Jota, but his latest comments on Firmino suggest that the Brazilian is here to stay.
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