Former Liverpool favourite Luis Garcia has urged the club’s supporters to be patient with summer signing Roberto Firmino, following the Brazilian’s somewhat quiet start to the new season.
Firmino, who signed for us from Hoffenheim this summer for £29m (via BBC Sport), has been steadily bedded into Brendan Rodgers’ squad thus far – coming on as a substitute in the first two games before being withdrawn after starting the following two matches.
Unfortunately, we’ve been yet to see the best of 23-year-old during the early stages of his Liverpool career, which can’t have been helped by the fact that he only played an hour of our pre-season campaign due to his participation in the Copa America with Brazil.
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However, he was one of the better players on the pitch during our uninspiring defeat to West Ham, and struck the post with one very decent effort mid-way through the first-half – giving us just a glimpse of what might hopefully still be to come.
Garcia, who won the Champions League and the FA Cup during his time with us, agrees that Firmino has room to improve – but has urged supporters not to expect too much too soon.
He told the Echo: “It’s not easy to come into the Premier League and adapt. I think that he’s a very good player but you have to give him time to adapt to the pace of the game, to the players, the different situations in games. He’s a player that wants to do things to change games, like Coutinho does at the moment.”
The Spaniard also warned us not to get too downhearted after last Saturday’s result and is confident that we will improve. He added: “Liverpool have to keep going. You can get games like Saturday. It’s better to get it out of the way early in the season. They’ve got lots of days now to find the solution, a big space to put in some work.
“I think the main target for the year has to be Champions League football. Liverpool need to play against the big teams. But it’s not easy at the start of the year, with new players, new signings, different ways of playing maybe with Benteke.”