4 Liverpool players who have successfully changed their playing position under Jurgen Klopp

Klopp has helped several Liverpool players raise their level

#1 Roberto Firmino

The transformation of Roberto Firmino has to be one of Jurgen Klopp’s best moves yet as the Liverpool manager.

The Brazilian played as an attacking midfielder for Hoffenheim but because of a severe imbalance in the Liverpool squad when Klopp took over and also a lack of quality strikers, Klopp used him as a centre-forward occasionally in 2015/16.

At the start of the 2016/17 season, Klopp permanently shifted Firmino up front. The Brazilian played as the centre-forward with Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane playing on either side.

In his first season in the new role, Firmino scored 12 and assisted 8 more in 41 games. However, there were games in which he had to play out wide.

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The 2017/18 season saw the best of Firmino as a striker with him scoring 27 goals and assisting 15 more in 54 games. However, it’s not just his goals that makes Firmino the perfect centre-forward for Klopp’s system.

The Brazilian’s work rate, pressing and willingness to drop deep helps Liverpool win the ball high up the pitch and release the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

Incredibly, Firmino won more tackles in the Premier League in 2017/18 than all the defenders of the Top 6 clubs barring Cesar Azpilicueta. That’s some stat.

Edited by Vikshith R