Firmino used to be a defender, but skinned so many attackers his coach turned him into a playmaker

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Roberto Firmino is maybe our favourite Liverpool player. When he’s on-song, he purrs and makes a game played at such frenetic pace look entirely simple.

But for those who haven’t watched him so much he’s difficult to understand. He’s a striker who doesn’t score that many goals… He’s a wide midfielder without noticeable pace… Where does he actually play?

In truth, it doesn’t really matter. The Brazilian epitomises the versatile, modern attacker and as a result Jurgen Klopp has built a team around him. Already under the German, our 24-year-old has played as a centre-forward, an inside forward and a no.10. It makes no difference to player or manager.

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In fact, Firmino actually started off life as a defender in Brazil!

“It was a youth-team coach at CRB,” Firmino tells Sky Sports, referring to the lower league Brazilian side he started off at. “I was playing in defence once. I dominated the game and even dribbled past their forwards a few times.

“I showed my quality and so he decided to play me as a playmaker. I then played on the wing for a while before becoming an attacking midfielder where I started scoring goals and realised that was the position for me.”

Not that Firmino cares either way, of course.

“I don’t have a preference,” our no.11 continued. “I just want to play which is what I enjoy. I always want to play regardless of the position. I always want to help the team and show what I can do.”

It won’t be too long before everybody realised how special a player Firmino really is. He’s keeping Daniel Sturridge out of the side without even scoring that many goals, which shows how crucial he is to our overall game-plan under Klopp.

Providing he stays fit, we can see this being the best season of Firmino’s career so far.

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