Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane, and most recently, Diogo Jota have brought the speed, the fizz, and the goals to Liverpool.
Yet, the fastest rockets cannot launch without the perfect launchpad.
Well, Salah, Mane, Jota, and January transfer signing Luis Diaz are currently set to lose theirs.
It is blissfully ironic that the contract situation of Roberto Firmino has almost drowned beneath the speculation and anticipation of Mane and Salah’s deals.
Just like the Senegalese and Egyptian hitmen, Firmino’s deal is also set to expire in eighteen month’s time.
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While the Brazilian’s potency and fizz in front of goal has reduced somewhat in recent years, the composure, creativity, and attacking gravity he brings to Jurgen Klopp’s side has been invaluable – the bulk of Liverpool’s huge decisions is not rooted in Mane and Salah alone.
“Bobby is a complete footballer,” Klopp said after Liverpool’s 3-0 home victory against Leicester last season.
“A football team is like an orchestra, you have different people for different instruments. Some of them are louder than others but they are all important for the rhythm.
“Bobby plays something like 12 instruments in our orchestra. He’s very important.
“We can play well without him as well but I certainly want him on the pitch and if you look at the numbers, I like having him on the pitch a lot.”
Klopp has accumulated a majestic orchestra of players which has brought him the Premier League and the Champions League, but even Andre Rieu would suffer if a player worth 12 instruments suddenly departed.
Firmino’s ability to subtly tempt confused defenders inwards, before popping the ball around the corner into Salah, Mane, and Jota’s path has been exemplary.
Ever since Klopp decided to use him as a so-called ‘false nine’ in the 2017-18 season, Salah and Mane’s respective games have been taken to the next level.
Salah and Mane may very well be the players in the race for the Golden Boot, but Firmino has often been the one who has banished the hurdles in their races.
And while the losses of Mane and Salah, or even more terrifyingly for Liverpool supporters, both, would be terrifying, Diaz and Jota are there to pick up their batons.
However, Klopp would need to dramatically overhaul his playing style if he were to lose Firmino on a free transfer in the summer of 2023.
Mane, Salah, Jota, and Diaz are four very special players in an ocean of goalscoring wingers in European football.
But Firmino is a very bright star in a tiny galaxy of ‘false nines’ who are happy to sacrifice some of their own goalscoring ambitions to raise those of others.
Manchester United have two elite goalscoring wingers in Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho, and a five-time Ballon d’Or winner in Cristiano Ronaldo sitting in-between them - Salah has scored more Premier League goals than all three combined.
The departures of Salah and Mane would hurt any team, but Firmino could very well be the hardest player to replace, if he was allowed to leave at the end of his contract.
