When he looks back, Roberto Firmino is likely to view this season as the most difficult of his career, but Jurgen Klopp is not of the belief that his No. 9 as “lost everything.”
Things have just not gone right for Firmino this term.
With six goals and seven assists in 43 games so far, the Brazilian is set to finish the campaign with his lowest output since joining the club from Hoffenheim in 2015.
It could be the first season in which he has failed to score 10 or more goals since 2012/13, and while his influence has never been truly measured in numbers, the eye test suggests he has dropped off too.
However, Klopp insists that is a symptom of Liverpool’s difficult campaign, and that problems in defence – and in turn, the structure of his side – have forced Firmino away from goal.
“To me it’s for sure a result of the season, 100 percent,” the manager said.
“But as well, when the boys up front don’t score as often as we are used to, then that doesn’t help in these moments.
“It’s not dreamland, you have to go through these periods, but it’s temporary and not forever. No doubt about that.
“Bobby is not old or tired or something like that – or lost everything. Not at all.
“We see everything in training, we have to make sure we bring that more often on the pitch. That’s not for Bobby, that’s a general thing for us. That’s it.
“The season was not a season so far where we got a proper flow and things were clicking game after game.
“We had to work incredibly hard, and when you have to work incredibly hard you have to think about different things.
“When we lost our defensive stability a little bit, because of the injuries, everybody had to do differently in protection, in defending, all these kinds of things.
“That keeps you a yard further back, or two or three or five or 10. That keeps your focus away from an offensive situation, because you think already ‘if we lose the ball, we have to make sure that we get it back’.
“It’s really a complex thing, a lot of complex things happened this year. There’s absolutely no excuse, but it’s a description of the situation.
“Bobby is one example for it, but Bobby is in a good moment actually, he plays really well. That’s good.”
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