When Steven Gerrard decided to leave his beloved Liverpool in 2015, the legendary Reds captain would later admit his decision was influenced by Brendan Rodgers utilising him only as a substitute against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu the previous November.
Eight years later, and now that Roberto Firmino has informed Jurgen Klopp he will leave Anfield at the end of his contract in the summer, you wonder if history might be repeating itself.
Granted, Liverpool haven’t travelled to the Bernabeu yet, that will come later this month. But the Reds’ most recent match, a 2-0 win over Wolves, could have perhaps impacted his thinking in a similar way.
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And while a routine midweek win over the West Midlands outfit at Anfield certainly lacks the weight of a Champions League trip to the Spanish giants, it still emphasised the Brazilian’s current place in the Anfield pecking order and the reality that awaits him if he had decided to sign an extension instead.
Diogo Jota was selected to start in attack with Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez on either flank. And as it took Liverpool until the 73rd minute to break the deadlock, he was left watching on from the sidelines.
Klopp would make a change after Virgil van Dijk’s opener, sending on Cody Gakpo for Jota. While predominantly an inverted left-winger for former club PSV Eindhoven, he would line up centrally, in Firmino’s false nine role, as has been the case for the majority of his brief Reds career to date since joining in January. It would seem the Dutchman is being groomed as his long-term replacement.
It wasn’t until the 89th minute that the Brazilian got the call from the bench. Replacing Nunez, the game was already won and his impact was minimal. Yet this is his role now and when Luis Diaz returns from injury, his game-time could be limited further.
Liverpool have spent the past 12 months revamping an ageing attack after all, by handing Salah and Jota new contracts while bringing in Diaz, Nunez, and Gakpo. Those latter four were signed for a combined initial fee of £178m, which will inevitably rise with add-ons.
All continue to eat into 31-year-old Firmino's game time. Their peak years are ahead of them and they are the Reds’ future.
Firmino is a Liverpool legend, there is no doubt about that. Since joining the Reds from Hoffenheim in a £29m deal in 2015, the same summer of Gerrard’s exit, he has won everything there is to win.
He helped the Reds end their 30-year drought to be crowned champions of England. A European champion in 2019, he even scored the goal that saw the club crowned champions of the world for the first time the same year.
Boasting 107 goals and 71 assists from 353 appearances to date, while Liverpool’s struggles this season make further silverware highly unlikely, the 31-year-old will at least be looking to add to such totals until the end of his Anfield career in summer.
In truth, where once he was part of an untouchable triumvirate along with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, and synonymous with Klopp’s great Reds team, he has declined in recent years. The goals have slowly started to dry up with the forward managing to just about keep hitting double figures, and appearances and starts have since decreased too.
An ever-present when Liverpool won the Premier League in 2019/20, that season was the first when Firmino’s goal return was widely criticised. Klopp responded by signing Jota from Wolves in the summer of 2020, with the Portuguese ensuring the Brazilian had genuine competition for a starting role for the first time.
Struck down by injuries in 2021/22 as the Reds challenged for an unprecedented quadruple, he made just 20 Premier League appearances, starting only 10 times. Meanwhile, only 17 of his 35 appearances in all competitions came from the start.
This season the forward has fared better at least. He has made 26 appearances, 16 from the start, and was a regular before suffering an injury during Liverpool’s mid-season training camp in Dubai. Meanwhile, he boasts nine goals and four assists, and is on track to boast his best scoring return for a campaign since 2018/19.
As a result of such form, it was initially believed that the Brazilian still had a future at Anfield and the Reds would fight to keep him at the club. Yet goals aren’t everything, as Klopp pointed out back in October.
“Bobby is in a really good moment,” the German said before his side’s clash with Man City, having seen the forward net a brace in their 7-1 victory away at Rangers last time out. “I'm really, really happy for him, really, really happy for him.
“Even when it's for us obviously not the best moment we've ever had, it's helpful when these boys at least still know where the goal is… Look, in our situation nobody played the season he should have played yet.
“Yes, Bobby numbers-wise it is like this but now he scored [against Rangers] two and two against Bournemouth. Bobby is an exceptional player, I think nobody said it more often than I said it.
“But it's like this, it's not like Bobby was flying in all the games. So now we take the numbers and say, 'That's the best start in a season.' That might be statistically the case but we as a team didn't have the best start in our lives and that's for different reasons.
“But this moment helps, of course, now scoring two… Nothing changed really for Bobby. Bobby always played when he was fit in this team, he always contributed when he was fit, all these kind of things. But we have to do it again and again and again.”
Firmino would start against Man City and, with Jota and Diaz both long-term absentees, would rack up 10 starts in a row heading into the World Cup, though such availability was not enough to earn him a Brazil call-up. Meanwhile, when he opened the scoring in a 3-1 win over Southampton in Liverpool’s final game prior to the break, it seemed likely that a contract extension would be forthcoming.
Yet that mid-season injury, which would sideline him for two months, means his Saints goal remains his only strike since his Rangers brace over four months ago. Meanwhile, that Southampton game in November remains his last start for Klopp’s side.
Had Firmino stayed fit and continued to perform in the absence of Jota and Diaz, the prospect of an Anfield departure would perhaps be a lot more concerning. Yet, his own time on the sidelines allowed Nunez to bed in further and grow in importance, with Gakpo being reinvented as a false nine after joining.
With Jota now back fit, he’s Liverpool’s fourth choice central striker at best. Both returned as substitutes in last month's victory over Everton, with the Portuguese turned to first despite a longer spell injured.
Both introduced at the same time either side of the hour-mark in the 2-0 victory away at Newcastle and 5-2 home defeat to Real Madrid, since then Jota has started against both Crystal Palace and Wolves as Firmino remains a substitute. Their respective roles at Anfield now both available again are clear.
Meanwhile, that dwindling goal return means, as good a squad player as Firmino is, he’s not the player you first turn to to win you a game - despite David Fairclough being the only man in Reds history to better his total of 13 goals from the bench. With Diaz set to return later this month, he’s likely to only fall further down the pecking order.
To complicate his chances further, unlike all of his fellow forwards at Anfield, Firmino can really only play to his best down the middle. Where once Liverpool built their side around the Brazilian, now you have to move everyone else around just to accommodate him.
Like the favourite shirt we all possess that is now just left gathering dust back in the wardrobe, a little bit too tight to squeeze into after the pandemic, Klopp would have had a ruthless decision to make regarding the forward’s future.
The German has often been accused of being too sentimental with his players. Maybe Firmino would have been one he would have reluctantly been ready to let go. Either way, today’s news has confirmed the path that player and manager will have to take.
Like Gerrard before him, an increasingly bit-part role is evidently not to Firmino's liking. When he departs this summer, it is with a heavy heart from all parties.
Yet the timing is correct for a parting of ways and it feels right that the Brazilian looks to be leaving on his own terms with his head held high, with one final chapter still to write of his Liverpool legend before an exit in the summer.
Beyond that, at least his departure will get his significant salary off the ever-rising wage bill, and could even aid Liverpool in their own next chapter ahead of a transfer spending spree as they build Klopp’s next generation of side. The end of era but fittingly one final assist from Firmino, as it were.
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