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How Roberto Firmino solidified himself as Liverpool's engine

CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP / Getty

As Liverpool unravelled at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, Jurgen Klopp looked to his bench. Sevilla had scored twice from set-pieces, but he saw his team struggling all along their left flank. He withdrew Alberto Moreno and Philippe Coutinho from that side of defence and midfield, respectively. On went James Milner and Emre Can to replace them.

Perhaps Klopp should have considered the options already available to him on the pitch. Roberto Firmino had been the star of the first half, scoring two goals and setting up another as Liverpool raced to a 3-0 lead. He wears the No. 9 shirt nowadays, to match the role that he has made his own under the German manager. But there was a time when he used to line up at full-back.

It was the intervention of a youth team coach at Clube de Regatas Brasil, somewhere around Firmino's 18th birthday, that set him on a different path. "I was playing in defence (on one particular occasion)," he told Sky Sports in 2016. "I dominated the game and even dribbled past their forwards a few times.

"I showed my quality and so he decided to play me as a playmaker. I then played on the wing for a while before becoming an attacking midfielder where I started scoring goals and realised that was the position for me."

His evolution has continued in the time since that conversation, Klopp pushing him further forward still, to lead the line. But Firmino retains a thing or two from those formative years. He made 58 tackles in the Premier League last season - more than many of the division's most high-profile centre-backs, from Gary Cahill to Laurent Koscielny and Jan Vertonghen.

Firmino was characterised by Klopp this week as Liverpool's "engine," and that term certainly feels apt. By full time on Wednesday, the Brazilian had covered 50.7 kilometres in five Champions League group games for Liverpool (according to UEFA's own tracking system) - the furthest of any player on his team.

There is a version of Tuesday's game, indeed, which might be told using his personal heat-map alone. Firmino took four shots from inside the Sevilla area during the first 45 minutes. He did not so much as touch the ball in that part of the pitch again until the 68th - and, even then, only in an unthreatening spot on the right. By that stage, Sevilla had already pulled two goals back.

Of course, no one is seriously suggesting that Klopp would have been better off pulling Firmino back into defence. But we might reasonably ask how he got the second part of this game so wrong, after a first half in which Liverpool had teed themselves up to make this another famous European night.

That Klopp's team is weak in defending dead-ball situations can no longer come as a surprise to anyone. Sevilla's first goal, in particular, had the feel of a rehearsed routine, Wissam Ben Yedder running straight across the face of Liverpool's defensive line to exploit its zonal scheme, and rise above a static Moreno at the near post.

The latter player endured a catastrophic night across the board. It was Moreno who had given away this free-kick in the first place, and he would gift Sevilla the penalty kick from which it grabbed its second just eight minutes later.

At 3-0 up, though, ought he not to have been better protected? Away from home in one of Europe's more daunting stadiums, should Liverpool not have moderated its approach?

It is easy to talk about the need for fresh blood whenever we observe the defensive frailty of a Liverpool side that has conceded 25 times in 18 games across all competitions. No doubt a player of Virgil van Dijk's calibre would indeed upgrade their backline.

Sooner or later, though, the buck must also stop with a manager who keeps on doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Even when Klopp did begin to make changes, he still stuck doggedly to his usual 4-3-3.

Rigid adherence to one tactical scheme might not be enough to succeed domestically anymore, at a time when Manchester City is deploying such fluid schemes under Pep Guardiola. It has not been enough in Europe for some time. Both of last season's Champions League finalists, Real Madrid and Juventus, went through significant tactical evolution over the course of their respective seasons.

When the dust settles on this game, Liverpool will recognise that a draw away to Sevilla is still a fine result. Maribor's late equaliser away to Spartak Moscow means that the Premier League side remain top of Group E with one game left to play.

It was still a waste, though, of a brilliant performance from Firmino. How frustrating it must be, after moving all the way up from defence to attack, to be left wondering if you might have done a better job than the men who stood behind you.

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