Gareth Roberts was joined by Phillipa Smallwood, Craig Hannan, Rob Gutmann and Lizzi Doyle for the latest edition of Wildcards and the subjects that were up for debate this week were:
– Firmino as a ‘9’
– Overrated LFC legend
– Favourite non-LFC player
– Podcasts
A couple of things to add. Firstly, I’ve got a lot of respect for Rob’s views but he’s just gone up in my estimation with his Kuyt shout. Everything he said echoes my views so nothing more to add. With him on the Lucas shout too.
Regarding the striker, we won’t have the money should we get our targets. We’ll buy next summer spending most of our £80m budget on one. Firmino’s figures are tainted by his time out wide. He didn’t look in some of the games. Always industrious but sometimes short on quality. Up front he fits.
Sturridge is a far better number 9 and he did well when he came on in some of those away games towards the end of the season, Stoke was it when he changed the game in the second half? Did he do well v West Brom? Memory is not my strong point. But, in Klopp’s system where more players chip in with goals then it’s fine. I saw something the other day where if you take the main striker’s goals out of games for all Prem clubs then LFC are top. There’s something in that. Sturridge deserves one more season because we can’t get better with the money left. If he fails we’ll have Ings who though disputable is a good option in my eyes. He’s a number 9. We have Origi and even Salanke. I’m thinking of games against some of the lesser teams. They’ve all got a role to play. I still think Ings will surprise a few people. We desperately need Keita. If gives us so many more options. Mane, Salah and Firmino can get 14 each. Sturridge 10, Ings 7, Origi 8, Lallana and Coutinho can get 8 each, Henderson, Can and Gini can get 6 each, Milner 6 pens, the centre halfs 5 between them. We’re already up to 112 before Keita’s 45 goals. That puts us around the 150 mark which wins everything. I’m not concerned. We have to look at this as a squad of players chipping in and not the old style number 9 gets all the goals. This is a Klopp team.