Jurgen Klopp has dismissed criticism of Roberto Firmino and is adamant the forward remains “very important” for Liverpool.
Firmino was among several players way below their best during the 2-2 draw at Fulham in the opening Premier League game last weekend.
The Brazilian was replaced shortly after half-time by Darwin Nunez, who went on to score one goal and contribute an assist, similar to the previous week’s Community Shield win over Manchester City in which Firmino had also started before being substituted for the £64million summer signing.
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Nunez is now favourite to begin Monday’s visit of Crystal Palace, but Klopp believes Firmino - whose next Premier League start will be his 200th - cannot be judged solely on his under-par outing at Craven Cottage.
“Bobby is very important,” said the Reds boss. “If you take now our last game against Fulham, we didn’t find Bobby properly. There were different reasons, we saw in the analysis a lot; we can speak about it but it was something that had nothing to do with us, to be honest, because the centre was very often blocked.
“If you want to watch it back you see it as well, and they were not bad players. That’s why it was a bit difficult for him to get into the game. And we didn’t play well, and that’s always for an offensive player not easy to show up really.
“But apart from that, I don’t obviously judge Bobby because of one game or two games or whatever. Bobby is a fantastic player and had a good pre-season, not a perfect pre-season but a good pre-season and that’s all he needed, that he could have the amount of sessions he had and could train as often as he did.
“He will benefit from that definitely during the season and from there we go.”
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