JURGEN KLOPP has dismissed criticism of Roberto Firmino after the Brazilian striker banged in his fourth goal in three league games at Carrow Road.
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| Jurgen Klopp has defended Roberto Firmino after his brace for Liverpool at Norwich |
Former Liverpool and England forward Michael Owen has slated Firmino since his £29million move from Hoffenheim, but after his starring role in Liverpool's epic victory, Klopp defended his frontman.
"There is a wide spectrum of types of strikers," said Klopp. "Roberto is a very offensive player, so he is a striker.
"Everybody asked me, 'What about Firmino, we need a real target striker?' He got two against Arsenal and he scored two again.
"Firmino can play and score goals and he is for us a good option to play with. He is flexible and at the moment in brilliant shape. He gets in the box and then something happens."
The 24-year-old was given the nod ahead of Christian Benteke, with Jordan Ibe starting in front of Adam Lallana, who came off the bench to score the winner five minutes into time added on. "Having the option with Christian is good," added Klopp.
Firmino put Liverpool in front in a topsy-turvey game where both teams were defensively disgraceful. Dieumerci Mbokani, debutant Steven Naismith and Wes Hoolahan put Norwich 3-1 up before Stephen Henderson and Firmino leveled matters.
A shocking back pass from Canaries skipper Russell Martin allowed James Milner to run on and score, and that should have been that. But more sluggish Liverpool defending from a free-kick allowed Sebastien Bassong to score from 25 yards, two minutes into added time.
Lallana then popped up with the winner three minutes later with Klopp having his glasses smashed during the wild celebrations, which prompted angry Norwich coach Frankie McEvoy to confront the Liverpool manager in the tunnel.
As delighted as he was with the goals, Klopp warned his players to improve at set-plays after Norwich managed to score with four of their five shots on target.
"It's really frustrating," he said. "It's not something I like to make jokes about, our defence.
"We know how it works. I was an under-average player, but if I was good at something it was defending set-plays. It's not that difficult."
Equally frustrated was Norwich centre-half Bassong, who accepted the defensive display was nowhere near good enough and it was time Norwich manned up.
"It's easy to say we are men," said the former Spurs defender. "If we are real men then this defeat will not affect us.
"When shit happens men deal with it. If we can't deal with it we are not men and so it means we do not deserve to be at this club. It's as simple as that."
The Canaries spent almost £10million during the week on two new defenders in Ivo Pinto from Dinamo Zagreb, who struggled on his debut, and Timm Lose from Wolfsburg for £7.6m, who watched from the bench.
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| Norwich's celebrations were short lived after Bassong's stoppage time equaliser |
Norwich have now conceded 14 goals in four games and have lost three league games on the bounce, which Bassong knows is relegation form.
"I'm a positive man so I always try to stay positive," said Bassong. "But the way we defended, especially in the second half, was shocking.
"If we had handled the game a lot better none of that would have happened. It's more than disappointing."
Although they have 10 days before their next game due to an early exit from the FA Cup, Bassong and his teammates will have little time off and face spending today looking at the video nasty of the game as manager Alex Neil intends to highlight every error and poor decision making.
"When you get days like this as a player you should feel the pain, you should feel the hurt," said the Scot. "What it should do is create an anger and a determination to come back even stronger."
"It's fundamentals that we're doing wrong. How do you stop somebody giving a short back-pass to somebody? How do you stop somebody maybe not tracking a runner? It's difficult."
NORWICH (4-4-2): Rudd 6; Pinto 4, Martin 4, Bassong 5, Brady 5; Redmond 5 (Jarvis 70, 6) Dorrans 6, Howson 6, Hoolahan 7 (Olsson 70, 6); Naismith 8 (Jerome 82) Mbokani 7. Goals: Mbokani 29, Naismith 41, Hoolahan 54 pen, Bassong 90. NEXT UP: Tottenham (h) Feb 2, PL.
LIVERPOOL (4-4-2): Mignolet 6; Clyne 6, Sakho 5, Toure 6, Moreno 4 (Caulker 90); Henderson 7 (Benteke 82), Lucas 6, Can 6, Milner 7; Firmino 8, Ibe 6 (Lallana 59, 7): Booked: Lallana. Goals: Firmino 18. 63, Henderson 55, Milner 75, Lallana 90. NEXT UP: Stoke (h) tomorrow, League Cup.
Referee: Lee Mason.
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