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Liverpool legend Aldridge tells Klopp: Sell Firmino

Liverpool legend John Aldridge says it's time for Roberto Firmino to be sold.

Aldridge wrote for the Sunday World: "Jurgen Klopp has not made too many mistakes in his time as Liverpool manager, but he picked the wrong striker to start the Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.

"I have done my best to back Roberto Firmino on the pages of the Sunday World over the last couple of years.

"But he should not have started the second leg against the Spanish side last Wednesday.

"Klopp, as a manager, is very loyal to the players who have brought so many trophies to Liverpool in recent years.

"Yet, this was surely a moment when the German had to go with the man in form and start Diogo Jota.

"The Portuguese ace has been in great form for club and country since his return from injury, and on a night when Liverpool needed goals to try to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit, Jota needed to be on from the start.

"Instead, we got what has become the familiar performance from Firmino, with his lack of goals exposed by the alarming dip in form we have also seen from Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane.

"When Salah and Mane were scoring 30 goals a season each, Firmino's scoring rate was not a problem.

"But that is not the case right now – and it means Firmino is not the centre-forward Liverpool need to challenge for the biggest prizes in the game."

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Paul Vegas

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