Jurgen Klopp has more often than not favoured Roberto Firmino in a false nine position for much of Liverpool's campaign, however the Red's manager accepted the Brazilian did not perform to the levels he expects in their defeat to Leicester City on Monday night.
Firmino has been an integral part of the Liverpool front three whichbamboozled defences throughout the first few months of thePremier League season, however like his fellow teammates his dip in form has seen the Reds push for atop four spot put in danger.
Speaking in his pre-match press-conference, according to theLiverpool Echo, Klopp said: "Usually Roberto Firmino with his attitude, readiness, you can give him the ball.
But against Leicester the first ball went five yards away from his foot and you thought ˜what's that?!' It started like this and couldn't get any better.I don't know the last time he did that.
If you have that many players not on their usual level each Premier League game will be difficult. So we lost because of our performance."
Baffling as to how Firmino can go from World Class to Conference standard between matches all the time
The 25-year-old'spositioning sees him lead the line in Klopp's high pressing formation, hassling defenders and utilising hisclever movement to send the Reds into attack.
However, too often this season the Anfield faithfulhave seenthe Brazilian turn in inconsistent performances which have contributed to the Reds inability to impact the score sheet as they did at the start of their campaign.
Roberto Firmino has three goals and no assists in his last 19 games �
Off the boil... pic.twitter.com/BbAT3rxjnT
Klopp acknowledged Firmino is not the only one to blame: "We have to do better, 100%. Not only Roberto. There are a few other players who have a lot of space to improve.
We have to be as confident as possible in the next game.�
That next game is with fellow top four rival,Arsenal, who visit Anfield on Saturday night.Both Klopp and Firmino will be hoping for an immediate reaction to last weeks 3-1 defeat in order tosend them back into the Champions League places with 11 games to go.