All Hail Bobby Firmino: A Modern Day Liverpool Great

It’s amazing to think that there was a time at the start of his Liverpool career during which Roberto Firmino was vilified for his lack of output. Sure, he looked the part, but did he score enough goals and create enough assists to be considered a quintessential Liverpool striker?

Fast forward to the present day, with the Brazilian having left the club at the end of his contract, and few could argue that Firmino doesn’t deserve his place in the pantheon of contemporary Liverpool greats.

And it’s not just his silky skills, his dazzling smile and a trophy haul that includes a Champions League triumph, Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Club World Cup – a holy quintet in domestic football if ever there was one.

In the end, Firmino added the goals and assists that his early critics said he lacked – but where does he rank amongst the great and good of Liverpool strikers?

Liverpool’s All-Time Leading Goalscorers

If Firmino scores in Liverpool’s final game of the 2022/23 campaign against Southampton, he would take 16th spot outright in the list of all time Reds goalscorers.

At the minute, he shares sixteenth with Jack Balmer on 110 goals – eighth shy of Ian St. John in fifteenth.

Mo Salah only needs one more goal to surpass Steven Gerrard’s tally of 186 goals, and then he would be around 40 shy of Billy Liddell, who sits in fourth place in the all-time standings.

But even the unstoppable Egyptian will find it difficult to catch Ian Rush, whose incredible haul of 346 goals in a Liverpool shirt will surely never be beaten.

Liverpool’s Premier League Top Goalscorers

Ahead of the 1992/93 season, the old First Division went through its rebranding to the Premier League – bringing with it the huge financial riches that we know today.

Liverpool, you won’t be surprised to learn, have contested every single season of the Premier League era, and therefore have had three decades worth of games to contest.

Firmino has notched 81 Premier League goals for the Reds in 255 appearances, which is a strike rate of roughly one-in-three – not bad for a player considered to be a ‘link man’, rather than an out-and-out striker.

The Brazilian hasn’t quite been able to surpass the exploits of his old teammate Sadio Mane, who notched 90 Premier League goals for Liverpool as well as 21 for Southampton. Michael Owen takes fourth spot with 118 EPL goals for the Reds.

And so the top three Liverpool goalscorers in the Premier League are:

• Mo Salah – 139 goals (and counting)
• Robbie Fowler – 128 goals
• Steven Gerrard – 120 goals

Liverpool’s All-Time Leading Assists

Judging Firmino solely by his goals in the famous red shirt is folly when you consider how many assists he delivered in his time at Anfield.

The Brazilian served up 72 goals for his teammates, which is just one shy of Salah’s haul of 73 and two more than Trent Alexander-Arnold’s tally of 70.

Rush confirmed his credentials as one of the greatest all-round strikers ever to grace the English game with 83 assists to go with his mammoth goal tally, while fourth on the all-time list of Liverpool assist givers is Steve McManaman with 85.

But who takes their place in the top three?

Liverpool’s Premier League Assist Kings

Liverpool’s king of the assist in the Premier League era has been Steven Gerrard, who delivered 92 passes and crosses from which his teammates found the net.

Steve McManaman was next best on the list with 59, although it seems inevitable that he will be passed by both Salah (58) and Andy Robertson (57) in the very near future.

With exactly 50 Premier League assists to his name, Firmino has capped an excellent Liverpool career with some 160 goal involvements in the league – remember, this was a player signed for just £29 million back in 2015.

There hasn’t been many strikers signed in modern times with a better goal involvement ratio per transfer fee than Firmino. And that’s why we salute you Bobby: you have been one of the best forward players in the Premier League in the past decade or so, and Liverpool fans will miss you dearly.