Careful asking for Bobby to be dropped on here you might be subjected to a virtual lynching.
It's because the anti-Firmino lot are short a few football chromosomes. The moment we go through a rough scoring patch the immediate reaction is to come here and say "we need to drop Firmino" and yet Mane and Salah go unmentioned.
In terms of scoring, this team is built around Salah first, then Mane, then Firmino to score and the first 2 are far more critical to get scoring for team success than anyone else on the team. Even when not scoring Firmino provides defense, pressing, work rate, build up from our own half and movement to create space for Mane and Salah to run into. Mane is similar with his work rate and defensive game working his ass off to recover the ball while Salah generally will hang out by the center line ready for the counter.
Salah hasn't scored a meaningful goal in over a month (against Palace by the time he came in and scored the game was already out of hand) but i don't see you commenting on the Salah thread about how he needs to pick it up. Unlike Firmino, when things aren't going Salah's way and isn't scoring he offers very little else. He's defensive game is subpar and constantly gives the ball away when trying to dribble past everyone in or around the box and eventually loses the ball.
Yesterday in the first half Firmino missed a chance with his left foot in the box, but the ball got to him not because of a pass but because Salah was once again trying to dribble past everyone and the ball pin-balled into Bobby's path, probably with a more difficult spin than if the ball was passed to him with appropriate weight. People's reaction is immediately to say "OMG Bobby, how can you miss that" instead of "OMG Salah, lift your F***ing head and see the open man"
Firmino is obviously struggling offensively, but he immediately becomes the whipping boy when Mane and Salah are struggling even worse and offer less when they're not scoring.
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