Saw Klopp ripping into a him a couple of times against Arsenal, really think if we had options there's absolutely no chance Lallana would be starting right now.
See people asking would you take Gotze if it meant losing Coutinho, I think more realistically Lallana is the one who will lose his place in the squad.
I liked Dave's one line in the match thread when Migs did a Cryuff, saying he's only 9 away from completing a Lallana. Style over substance, absolutely no end product and his defensive qualities have fallen through the floor. Brings it into stark contrast when you look at Firmino's stats who has come in for way too much stick this season:
Not sure I agree with that Luke, he was pretty poor for a long time. For sure there were sneaky little signs that there was a player in there, but there was plenty of rubbish as well. I think last nights performance has actually been coming for a few matches, he was excellent in the game where we dropped Benteke and put him in recently (can't for the life of me remember who it was against). In fairness to you he did cop a bit of stick in that one too which WAS surprising as I thought he had a good game, but on forums there's always a lag between how well a player is playing and how everyone comments on it.
I think the "lag" is caused by people coming to a conclusion about a player and being reluctant to change it, until they have absolutely no option. We're seeing that a little bit with Lovren right now and IMHO are in the very early stages of seeing it with Milner. I've done it myself, I even wasn't totally convinced about Suarez the first time I saw him
. With Firmino though many people have already written him off, like Lovren he'll need a few very decent performances to turn it around for some, but for most I should think last nights performance will have already wiped any slates clean. I thought his was the best performance ANY of our players have put in all season last night, top quality.
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