It has not been the easiest year for Roberto Firmino at Liverpool ahead of the World Cup in November. The £180,000-a-week man lost his place in the starting XI under Jürgen Klopp following the January arrival of Luis Diaz, with Sadio Mane preferred in the centre of the attack. Mane has since departed, although Darwin Nunez has arrived to compete with Firmino, resulting in an inconsistent spell of action for the Brazil international. As a result of him fading out at Anfield, Firmino has lost his place on the international scene.
So far this season, Firmino has scored three goals and provided three assists in eight appearances for Liverpool. If Tite does exclude Firmino from his World Cup squad, Jürgen Klopp may selfishly be quite glad. Of course, the German wants to see his players doing well and would surely enjoy seeing his £29m man on the world stage. However, Liverpool tend to have dreadful luck with injuries, and with so many fixtures on the schedule once the World Cup is over, Klopp would presumably love to have a fully rested Firmino raring to go.
The same was recently written about Thiago, who looks unlikely to be part of the Spain squad under Luis Enrique. If Firmino wants to be present in Qatar this November, he has a lot of work to do throughout October.
