Firmino's Lack of Goals

[True Blue]

18 hours ago, Storts said:

What a great post.

I think you're right - last season's goal tally was clearly at the top end of what he's capable of and I don't think he could ever be relied on to do that consistently. That point about his importance to the system is spot on. It's why I also thought Salah would regress this year. Not because he's not an excellent player, but because I feel like his goal return is also so reliant on the system you play, and when it is not working quite as effectively as it did for most of last season, he's clearly going to suffer the consequences. When Firmino isn't taking some of that pressure off as well then it just adds to it.

How has your midfield changed? Clearly the introductions of Keita and Fabinho have really yet worked as planned. I know Henderson is pretty average on the ball, but his energy to me was critical to have you played in the middle. 

On that final point - it's so frustration, but we've learnt to live with it. There's so many what ifs for both of us over the last few years. A new midfielder here, another goalscorer there, but ultimately that is out of our control and we just have to continue to hope our managers can work with the squads they have (us more than you) and find that winning formula. It's definitely frustrating that we have taken 10-12-15 years developing the club as we have, only to see teams like Man City and Chelsea spend copious amounts of oil money to jump to the front of the queue. If you'd told me in the early 2000's that we'd finish above Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool and not win the league I'd have laughed at you. 

Well you did have Leicester City as title rivals at one point and failed to win the league. Basically none of the top four were in it can't blame the oil money on that 

[Storts]

6 minutes ago, True Blue said:

Well you did have Leicester City as title rivals at one point and failed to win the league. Basically none of the top four were in it can't blame the oil money on that 

Great side Leicester, lot of respect for them

[LFCMike]

Only skim read the thread so don't know if this has been said already but he's not playing as striker this season. He's playing just behind Salah. It's taken him a bit of time to adapt but we saw at Watford that he's growing into his new role. Pivotal in our first goal there.