Si Señor! Obrigado Pelas Memórias Bobby!
Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 1, 20th May 2023.
Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 1, 20th May 2023.
LIVERPOOL 1 (Firmino 89)
ASTON VILLA 1 (Ramsey 27)
“There’s something that The Kop wants you to know
The best in the world his name is Bobby Firmino
Our number nine
Give him the ball and he’ll score every time
Si Señor
Pass the ball to Bobby and he’ll score”
In all footballing honesty, I wasn’t overly excited when Liverpool bought Roberto Firmino Barbosa de Oliveira from 1899 Hoffenheim in 2015. I believed Brazilian born Roberto Firmino (and soon to be christened as simply “Bobby” Firmino) too brash and too flash to lead the Reds attack.
But opinions and first impressions are there to be challenged and changed and I immediately saw the sporting beauty that the young man from the Brazilian coastal city of Maceió possessed. Regardless of the changing number on the back of his shirt until the rightful number 9 of the song that has reverberated loudly around every Premier League ground since the news was broken of his summer departure from the club, Bobby wasn’t just “Our Number 9” but arguably our numbers 8 and 10 too. For that is the genius of Bobby Firmino and why he was such a central component to an attacking forward line of all-time with Mo Salah and Sadio Mané, and a front attacking three that led Liverpool to win every conceivable honour on their way to being crowned Club World Champions in 2019.
The scorer of the winning goal that night in Qatar?
Our number 9, Bobby Firmino.
Four years into his spell at the club, the Brazilian with the biggest smile in the world was a World Champion and four years later, he departs a legend with 6 Major honours to his name as well as 81 Premier League goals and 110 in all competitions from 361 games played. A goal every 3 games from a centre forward who simply wasn’t just “our number 9” but the playmaking visionary in the number 10 role, a tackling and harrying number 8 looking for cheap ball and swift attacking transitions AND the cliched “first line of defence” pressuring defenders into mistakes in and around their own penalty area.
I underrated Bobby Firmino until I saw his true worth to the team, the “glue” in the attacking third of the pitch who could turn his hand from an immediate first line of defence into an incisive pass (72 assists) and sublime tricks and flicks that propelled his strike partners to unheard of goal tallies and his team, Champions of England, Europe and the World.
I joked with my old pal Dr Horseman pre-game that as today’s game was Bobby’s Anfield farewell he’d score the winning goal after coming on as a late substitute, and in the 89th minute. Bobby has always had a flair for the dramatic! That much is true, as is my prediction and whilst I got the minute he’d scored uncannily correct, it wasn’t the winning goal but a brilliantly taken equalising goal on a day that his team, on a run of 7 consecutive wins, were deeply second best for most of the game and fortunate to grab a point from a game that their visitors Aston Villa deserved all 3 from. Quite simply, whilst the Reds were slow and ponderous and took over 50 minutes to fashion a shot on their visitors goal, Aston Villa were brighter, sharper and when in front after Jacob Ramsey’s smartly volleyed goal on 27 minutes, rigidly organised and incredibly difficult to break down.
From zero shots on target in the first half, the Reds finally forced Emiliano Martínez into dirtying his goalkeeping gloves in the second half with shots from Mo Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and a Cody Gakpo goal ruled out by the VAR killjoys. But with a minute remaining on the clock, Mo Salah’s delicious instinctive cross with the outside of his left boot found the marauding run of his strike partner of so many glorious seasons in the sun, and Roberto Firmino signed off from Anfield with a goal, a quite spectacular goal, and at the Kop End too.
Pass the ball to Bobby and he’ll score?
Si Señor.
Thanks for reading. There is a wealth of past and present articles on Liverpool FC within my library here or alternatively, here are my three most recently published articles from this season:
Reds chase for Europe in a victory made in Liverpool
Leicester City 0 Liverpool 3, 15th May 2023.medium.com
Long live The King! The Egyptian King
Liverpool 1 Brentford 0, 6th May 2023.medium.com
Salah penalty enough for routine Reds win
Liverpool 1 Fulham 0, 3rd May 2023.medium.com