Christian Benteke and Roberto Firmino given joint-highest ranking among Liverpool summer signings

Balotelli: Rodgers insisted on playing him as a lone striker, which is not the Italian’s best position. Such statistics demonstrated his importance to the team, convincing Rodgers that he was right to trust the Brazilian to central zone of the pitch together. But if he can find his second goal for the club at Old Trafford on Saturday – although he is a doubt for the game against Manchester United through injury – there will be many Reds fans that will start to agree with Rush’s assessment.

“Two years ago I thought they deserved to win the league, they were that good“. Is Firmino a wide player, a creative midfielder, a forward?

The former Tottenham boss believes Liverpool will struggle to make the Champions League this season. “Where is [Firmino] meant to be playing?” For me it is still the biggest game in English football.

And he would have added to his tally had Petr Cech not been in such inspired form when Liverpool travelled to the Emirates a week later. Our overall performance with and without the ball will be much better in the future.

“It’s been a mixed start for Liverpool“, the ex-Liverpool midfielder told the Liverpool Echo. The German sat deepest in the engine room, affording Henderson and Milner the freedom to advance into the final third.

“We brought in a lot of players thinking they could maybe settle into it quickly but the learning aspect from that was that I needed to do more on that (defensive) front this season”.

“He is quite a technical player and he does the simple things perfectly, with 100 per cent concentration”.

“Benteke gives Liverpool a different option and I think he’s probably a bit better on the ground than people think”.

While Can is blessed with numerous attributes required to succeed in that position, his tactical awareness could certainly be improved: against players with a low centre of gravity, the 21-year-old gets turned remarkably easy, though he is likely to iron out that deficiency as he becomes more experienced.