Football Opinion: Roberto Firmino – Overall LFC Career Player Rating

Roberto Firmino
Image Source: Sports Illustrated

Context/Introduction

One of the two scorers in last evening’s European tie against Benfica, Roberto Firmino will be the focus of today’s article. In a similar vein to my Diogo Jota piece, I will review his stats, and transfer value, before giving him a rating.

However, this time the rating will be based on his entire career out of 100 (with 0 being poor and 100 being excellent). Also, in terms of his transfer value and stats, I will be looking at Firmino’s LFC career as a whole, rather than basing the rating solely on his performances in the 21/22 season.  

LFC Career Stats and Analysis

According to the official Premier League site, Firmino has appeared in (although he has not started all of these) 229 matches. Out of those matches, he has amassed 71 goals and 45 assists. 71 goals in 229 games doesn’t sound like much – this means for every 10 games played, Firmino has scored 3 goals. With only a 0.3 goals per game ratio (in the League, at least), there may be some who wonder what has happened in front of goal for our Brazilian number nine.

However, this low ratio doesn’t add his assists into the mix. So, let’s do just that – 71 plus 45 is 116. Then 116 divided by 229 leaves us with a much healthier ratio of 0.5. Maths accounted for (for now), this means that in every other game, Firmino is scoring or assisting. This is a great attacking return, considering the recent reshuffle of LFC tactics. Especially with Mane now, in most games, adopting the central forward role preferred by Firmino.

But even this is a bit misleading. ‘Career’ stats would tend to indicate all goals and assists across every competition that LFC and Firmino have competed in. To this extent, lfchistory.net has provided me with some more stats: from 322 total appearances, Firmino has 98 goals and 66 assists to his name – another 0.5 ratio. With this being across the entirety of his career at Liverpool as well, this has to be applauded as commendable.   

Has he been worth the transfer fee?

‘Bobby’ Firmino signed for Liverpool from the German side Hoffenheim in July of 2015 for £29 million. And nearly seven years later…well, it’s difficult, in my opinion, to assess the impact he has made. This is because of, as I mentioned earlier, the shift in tactics for some of LFC’s key players.

But it could also be to do with the type of competition and defenders he is coming up against. Especially in the League and European ties). Klopp would have bought him from the Bundesliga side because he knows about the league. Of course, he managed Dortmund there. Not to mention who are the prolific strikers and top scorers are. This, though, unfortunately, doesn’t always translate to domestic success in the Premier League for these types of players.   

Conclusion/Overall Rating (Out of 100)

However, consider the impact he’s made on the club with its illustrious success. Even as of the early 2015, Klopp days. This won’t affect my rating on his technical ability and quality. In fact, I think what I’ll do for this conclusion is simply add the two ratios. So, that’s the 0.3 league scoring, and 0.5 overall career ratio. This comes up with a new figure of 0.8. Times this by 100 and you have my overall rating for Roberto Firmino (80 out of 100).