When watching the two most entertaining teams in English football this season, it’s impossible not to think that you’re looking through a portal into the beautiful game’s near future.
Never before has the Premier League seen a team so relentlessly dominant as Pep Guardiola’s side, but rarely have we seen a team quite like Jurgen Klopp’s either, where counter-attacking prowess comes from every department, the frontline interchanges with seamless fluidity and the sheer speed of their forward advances appears virtually unstoppable.
The fact both of these teams have enjoyed incredible success this season, Manchester City lifting the Premier League title with a canter and Liverpool reaching the final of the Champions League, only adds to the idea that we’re witnessing something revolutionary and trendsetting that will define the philosophical framework of English football in the years to come, much like the effect Jose Mourinho had – albeit representing the opposite end of the tactical spectrum – when his utilisation of Claude Makelele in a 4-3-3 instantly transformed Chelsea into a relentless winning machine.
A few years later, practically every Premier League team had embraced the basic principles of the Portuguese’s game plan.
Aside from Guardiola and Klopp, there are two key figures helping to create that futuristic feel at City and Liverpool respectively, because they’re redefining the traditional demands of their respective positions – all the more intriguingly, at exact opposite ends of the pitch.
Ederson is by no means the first ball-playing goalie but the footballing ability he’s shown this season and the impact its had on Manchester City’s ability to not only retain possession but also create chances has already changed what is expected of Premier League goalkeepers.
It’s made those less capable with their feet look like old guard, and left every manager without a playmaking No.1 feeling there’s something missing from their side’s arsenal compared to divisional rivals. Even England, whose tactical evolution always seems a few years behind everybody else’s when they enter international tournaments, have turned to Jordan Pickford partly because his passing qualities so well suit Gareth Southgate’s game-plan of playing out of the back with a three-man defence.
While Ederson’s transformed the perceptions of goalkeepers to become such a key influence on City’s season though, Roberto Firmino’s had a similar effect on the centre-forward role at Liverpool. It’s perhaps been less dramatic and noticeable than what his countryman has brought to the goalkeeping game, but the Brazil attacker’s unorthodox take on the central striker role not only ideally suits Klopp’s fluid philosophy, but also fits perfectly into the way the game appears to be changing.
Although Firmino is expected to contribute his fair share of goals, a must for almost every player in this deliciously potent Liverpool team, his primary obligation is actually a supporting one, creating chances and space for the two forwards either side of him – Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s emergence at Manchester United was another example of setting a new transformative template, redefining the impact of wide players. When he first won the Ballon d’Or, the entire of the Premier League’s top ten goalscorers for the 2007/08 season, except himself, was filled by centre-forwards.
Fast forward to this season and only five of the current top ten in the Golden Boot race are what you’d define as out-and-out strikers – Harry Kane, Romelu Lukaku, Jamie Vardy, Sergio Aguero and Alexandre Lacazette.
The rest, excepting Firmino, are all wide-men or forwards who have spent part of the season on the wings – Gabriel Jesus, Mohamed Salah, Raheem Sterling and Eden Hazard. Ronaldo became the new prototype of the powerful goalscoring wide-man, and his mini-revolution was timed perfectly with the rise of 4-3-3.
Salah and Mane are disciples of the Ronaldo school of thought, providing the goal-threat from out wide, but that prevailing interpretation of wingers over the last decade has changed what’s needed from centre-forwards too, the requirement to supply the wide goalscorers almost as much find the net themselves, and Firmino represents the latest step in that evolution. Of course, we have seen supporting centre-forwards before – as already alluded to, they’ve been a key part of the success of 4-3-3.
Perhaps the most transformative player in that regard was Didier Drogba, one of the first Premier League strikers who could occupy defences single-handed and bring midfielders into the game while consistently scoring himself. He actually finished his Premier League career with 64 assists, around one every five appearances, compared to 121 goals.
Firmino though, is of a different breed and brings something new to the supporting centre-forward mantra. Whereas Drogba was always a pure centre-forward due to his aerial prowess and physicality, Firmino is something closer to a more traditional playmaker – part centre-forward, part winger, part No.10, part midfielder.
Rather than the knockdowns and flick-ons from high balls that became such a crucial part of Drogba’s game, the vast majority falling to Frank Lampard, Firmino plays through his surrounding wide-men on the deck. He collects the ball at feet, he turns his defender and then slots the pass.
It actually makes Liverpool’s formation as much a midfield diamond as a 4-3-3 and although some would argue this is essentially a False 9 we’re talking about, that position was invented to get the best out of Lionel Messi’s uniquely diminutive qualities in an almost completely free role.
Firmino is far more part of a functioning system, the same way Drogba was at Chelsea, and in terms of his natural strength and athleticism is far closer aligned to the Ivorian than the Argentine. Likewise, in terms of influencing other managers, players and teams in the years to come, Firmino – albeit a somewhat unique proposition himself – is far more replicable and pragmatic than potentially the greatest footballer of all time.
In terms of winning the ball back too, we’re seeing something new from Firmino. Whereas Mourinho famously used Drogba to help defend set pieces, something he was incredibly effective at, Firmino is arguably Liverpool’s best ball-winner and comfortably their best at winning it in dangerous areas.
As the statistics show, from all the typical centre-forwards in the Premier League this season, the South American has made the most interceptions and the second-most tackles, only bettered on the latter front by Swansea City’s Jordan Ayew. Equally tellingly, Firmino has made at least one tackle during 82% of his Premier League games this season and at least three in 29% of them.
Football inevitably moves in cycles and despite popular belief, Klopp didn’t invent the high press. In the coming years, it may well go out of fashion again in favour of a more conservative approach.
But right now, Firmino is clearly at the forefront – just as the manner in which he feeds wingers in on the ground fits perfectly into how the beautiful game has become less and less about long balls to a central striker, the areas where he wins the ball back highlight how there’s a much greater emphasis on proactively defending from the front, to disrupt the rhythm of possession-based teams.
Firmino is very much amongst the first of his kind – an attacker who combines the duties of a forward and a midfielder – but just as it appears inevitable every young goalkeeper breaking through will have a dose of Ederson about them in the years to come, as long as wide-men are expected to score goals there will be an element of Firmino about centre-forwards as well.
More than just a unique entity, the 19-cap international gives us an exciting glimpse into the future.
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