Legendary Liverpool player Roberto Firmino has recalled a difficult moment during the 2020 Reds championship campaign.
Firmino, who departed Anfield in the summer after eight incredible years, has written a new book on his time there. Even though “Si Senor: My Liverpool years” isn’t available for purchase until tomorrow, The Daily Mail published an excerpt of the book today that Reds supporters may find a little difficult to read.
Bobby reflects on the incredible 2019–20 season, remembering how Liverpool’s Champions League defeat to Atletico Madrid “rocked” a team that had previously believed itself to be unbeatable.
“The truth is, we were shocked by it,” the 32-year-old adds. “It was our first loss in five months [against Atletico], only the second of the season – the other had been against Napoli in the group stage.” We had a cohesive and strong team by then in the season, and we felt unbeatable. However, we were far from unbeatable.
We learned that the hard way, and we were shocked by the Atletico result. Three more losses followed Madrid, and these turned out to be even more important than we had anticipated. We fell 3-0 against Watford, snapping our 18-game winning streak in the Premier League and 44-game unbeaten run.
“We had lost last in the Premier League almost a year ago – to Manchester City. Our dreams of winning the title without losing had now been dashed. The game was awful. Everyone performed badly, and the team appeared disjointed. That day, I was really agitated and frustrated; I thought our fantastic work had been in vain.
“All of a sudden, we lost our perfect record in the Premier League and were eliminated by Chelsea from both the FA Cup and the Champions League.” It broke my heart.
To be honest, that was the winning team. That group and combination were ideal. It ought to have produced the ideal season. However, it was gone.
Firmino expresses Liverpool regret
In many respects, Liverpool’s 19/20 season was fantastic, but as Bobby says, it will always be marred by sorrow.
Firmino also discusses the evident disappointment of the Reds having to celebrate their long-awaited Premier League triumph in private. Liverpool, though, fell short of their potential on the pitch as well.
The Reds appeared poised to win everything after kicking off the season in spectacular way. They were already European winners; now was their chance to leave an incredibly impressive legacy.
Unfortunately, all of it came to a stop with the losses against Chelsea, Watford, and Atletico.
The ones that hurt the most are probably the ones against the Spanish team. Liverpool were prepared to win back-to-back Champions League titles after sweeping everything in their path in the Premier League till then. But Atleti arrived next.
Nevertheless, the Reds ought to have been able to recover from their 1-0 loss in Madrid. They really pummelling Jan Oblak’s goal back at Anfield.
But in the end, Alisson Becker’s absence was essentially what killed them. It’s difficult to think that Liverpool’s best player would have let in goals as sneaky as Adrian’s that evening. In the end, it seems that there was a significant ripple effect.
Don’t worry, Liverpool still had a wonderful season that people will never forget. Unfortunately, Bobby is correct in saying that it could have been and should have been far better.
