Much like Man\u00e9, the Brazilian forward isn\u2019t anywhere near as good as Luis Suarez was. Many people forget, though, that Luis Suarez wasn\u2019t Luis Suarez when he first arrived in England. Firmino is an entirely different type of player but I have to say I\u2019m glad he signed for us rather than Manchester United, Chelsea or Arsenal. The issue that Klopp has got is that the Brazilian is at his best when he\u2019s playing through the middle. We unquestionably lose something from his game when he\u2019s played out wide to accommodate a striker like Divock Origi.<\/p>\n
When it comes to the Belgian, I don\u2019t envy Klopp and the decision he\u2019s going to have to make. Towards the end of the 2015-2016 campaign, just before the Everton coward all but ended his season with a disgraceful tackle, Origi looked like he could develop into a world beater. With seven goals and three assists in twenty appearances last season his numbers haven\u2019t been too bad, but we haven\u2019t looked anywhere near as cohesive an attacking unit when he\u2019s been in the team. He added goals, but not much more beside. He was probably best when playing alongside Daniel Sturridge in a two-up-top type scenario, but that\u2019s not a formation I can envisage the manager turning to all that often.<\/p>\n
mooinblack \/ shutterstock.com<\/p><\/div>\n
The question then becomes, if Firmino doesn\u2019t play as well when he\u2019s pushed wide to accommodate Origi and Origi doesn\u2019t offer enough to start regularly, should we keep him? The player himself is reportedly happy to return to France if he isn\u2019t going to get many starts with us, so the manager has a tough call to make. I can\u2019t see Klopp being willing to let both Sturridge and Origi go, given that he\u2019ll then have to replace two attacking players at a time when he could do with bringing two more in, never mind letting two leave. The decision, perhaps, comes down to whether or not the German trusts the number of games he\u2019s going to be able to get out of Sturridge.<\/p>\n
The signing of Dominic Solanke looks like a good one for the future, but might Klopp be considering using the nineteen-year-old former Chelsea striker as his ‘new’ Origi? A young player who he can develop and fit into the team? He\u2019ll know he can\u2019t get more than twenty or so games out of Sturridge, but he\u2019ll also be aware that Origi has stifled our attacking play. Does he believe that he\u2019ll be able to mould Origi further, or will he think that\u2019s he done as much as he can with the youngster and he\u2019s never quite going to ‘get it’? Time will tell, but there\u2019s no doubt in my mind that Klopp will be considering strengthening this department by at least another body, perhaps two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last week I wrote a post about the different parts of the defence we need to strengthen. If you haven\u2019t read that yet then you may want to give it a look. I followed it up with a piece that reviewed the 2016-2017 season in general, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the campaign as I saw it. Again, that\u2019s worth a read if you\u2019re wondering why I\u2019ve reached the conclusions I\u2019ve reached regarding the areas of our team that I think Klopp needs to address heading into the transfer window. I\u2019ll be writing my first transfer rumours piece on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":937,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions\/937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.andcouldheplay.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}