What are Liverpool getting with Roberto Firmino?

Liverpool have signed a few players already this summer, but none made quite as big a splash as Roberto Firmino, late of Hoffenheim in Germany. The deal is worth a reported £29 million, a princely sum for a 23-year-old player, even one who has been making a lot of noise in the Bundesliga the last few years, and more recently with the Brazilian national team.

The first thing that stands out when you watch Firmino play is that he has incredible skills. He has an almost preternatural ability to control the ball, both on the dribble and when in close quarters with one or more defenders trying to win the ball off him. Firmino isn’t the strongest of players, but he can use deft touches, flicks and fakes to keep defenders off balance and guessing at what he’s going to do next.

Those ball skills are further helped by excellent balance and coordination, allowing him to quickly, smoothly and effectively change directions, even completely whipping his momentum around in the blink of an eye. That’s a rare thing and something that cannot be taught, and also a gift that will come in handy with the fast and physical defenders of the Premier League bearing down on him.

Firmino also possesses excellent vision and understanding of what he’s seeing on the pitch from a tactical sense. That comes through in several ways, the first and most obvious of which is his creative skill on the ball. Frequently deployed as a central attacking midfielder behind a striker at Hoffenheim, Firmino was asked to be the main creator for his side, and he showed a natural skill for the role, picking out teammates in good positions to score or put in a second pass regularly and effectively. His passing range and touch are both quite good -- not quite at an elite level in either area, but more than sufficient to be an asset to his team.

The other area that his vision shows up is in his work off the ball. Simply put, if you give Firmino any room or any gap in the defense to work with, he’s going to spot it, he’s going to run through it and you will regret it. He has deceptive pace and can sort of sidle in to the edges of a defender’s awareness with ease before turning on the jets, so he’s a guy who frequently pops up making a run to the back post out of nowhere. That’s extraordinarily useful to have, especially for a team like Liverpool that’s often struggled to have players making supporting runs on a regular basis.

As for Firmino’s shot -- it’s fine. He’s got a deft touch to his finish, but he doesn’t necessarily have the greatest range on his shots, meaning that he needs to be in the box to be effective. Of course, it’s always easier to score from inside the box than shooting from long range, so as far as potential weaknesses go for an attacking player, that’s hardly a game-killer.

Of course, all the skills in the world don’t mean a thing if you can’t actually make things happen with them. We’ve seen examples of that time and time again -- a player looks absolutely incredible on highlight reels or against lesser competition, but when given a real, big chance, they just can’t get the job done. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be a particularly large concern with Firmino.

In technical terms, that chart ranks players in the Bundesliga based on their total “expected” goals plus “expected” assists per 90 minutes played. Expected goals and assists are judged based on where and under what circumstances shots and key passes are made from -- and as the numbers indicate, Firmino is quite good by this measure. He ranked fifth in the Bundesliga by the metric last season, which is by no means an easy feat when playing for a midtable side in a league filled with attacking stars.

It’s actually the second straight season that Firmino finished fifth in that ranking, meaning last season wasn’t some fluke or aberration in form. He’s been playing at a high level for awhile now, scoring at least five league goals in each of the last four seasons, and vastly improving the creative side of his game over the last two years. At 23, Firmino is hitting the age when many quality attacking players really start to explode, which is almost frightening to consider when you look at what he’s already done in his career.

This is where things get a little bit complicated: how does Firmino fit in with Liverpool and Brendan Rodgers’ tactics? That’s a tough question to answer, especially since we don’t really know what Rodgers’ Liverpool team will look like next season. It seems like he’s gone through two or three formations and tactical approaches a year since he took over at Anfield, making it tough to pin down what role and position Firmino will play once he gets to England.

Fortunately, Firmino’s versatility is a strong enough asset that he can play effectively almost no matter how Rodgers sets up his side. While he’s best behind the striker, Firmino can do very well out on the wing as well, where his work rate also helps with defensive tracking and pressing.

Be it in a possession-focused scheme, a counter-attacking setup, or a blitzkrieg attack -- all of which have been used by Liverpool at times over the last few years -- there’s a place for Firmino in Rodgers’ side. It’s easy to dream of him and his friend and international teammate Philippe Coutinho, combining to do amazing things with Raheem Sterling and whoever winds up as Liverpool’s main striker, be that a healthy Daniel Sturridge or someone else.

This is the kind of signing that Liverpool have needed for a few years now -- a dynamic, high-quality attacking player who can help Liverpool in a variety of ways. They’ve tried to get that several times but have usually either failed to get their man -- Alexis Sanchez stands out from last summer’s frustrations -- or wound up with someone who fell short of expectations -- such as Adam Lallana.

Make no mistake, this is a lot of money that Liverpool are spending to get Roberto Firmino to Anfield. With that high a price tag, you certainly expect results of a certain level. Liverpool don’t exactly have the best history with players this expensive -- the only time they spent more was to acquire Andy Carroll, and that didn’t really work out well. The next highest transfer fee in Liverpool history? That was spent on Lallana, who in the last year spent quite awhile hurt and even more time not living up to the high hopes fans had for him.

Hopefully Firmino can shake that bad luck and perform at the level that fans know he can. His skillset suggests he can, what he’s done in the past says he should, and how he fits in the side screams that he will. Now it’s time for him to go out and prove that he has what it takes to become a star in the Premier League. Get some popcorn ready, because this should be fun to watch.