Roberto Firmino missed the Chelsea game with a slight groin injury – but according to Klopp, he was almost on the pitch.
The Brazilian has been vital to Klopp’s teams so far this season, keeping Daniel Sturridge out of the side on many occasions. It’s fair to assume Sturridge would have been dropped today too if Firmino had played.
According to Klopp, he was repeatedly told he could “take the risk” on Firmino, but ultimately opted against it.
“This afternoon there were really difficult decisions to make with Roberto [Firmino] – a very good player and it was only a little issue, but I had to make the decision in the end to say it was not possible [for him to play], he said.
“Everybody said we could take the risk, but I heard the word ‘risk’ too often and so said, ‘no, we can’t take it – Roberto is out’” (official site)
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Football can be a funny sport — would the game have panned out the same way if Firmino had started? Perhaps not. Same with our opening win against Arsenal; Moreno got criticised, but would we have scored four if he hadn’t given away that penalty? Maybe, maybe not.
Either way, it worked out great. We got three important points and we are up to fourth in the league.
Next up is Derby County in the League Cup next week.