For Roberto Firmino, it was shaping up to be a season like no other long before football was halted.
He delivered the winner in the Club World Cup final but is on the brink of becoming a Premier League champion without scoring against an English club at Anfield.
His lone home strike, against Atletico Madrid, counted for nothing. Liverpool still went out of the Champions League.
Firmino is a player like no other, and not merely because of the extraordinary anomaly whereby possibly England’s most dominant champions will post a 100 per cent home record without a goal from their No 9. The numbers illustrate how idiosyncratic Firmino is.
He can feel both the best defensive striker in the league and the most unselfish. No striker has more assists this season and only one, Sheffield United’s Lys Mousset, averages more per 90 minutes on the pitch.
But creativity comes in part from hassling and harrying. Firmino is Liverpool’s leader of the press, the man who can regain possession.
The Brazilian excels at getting the ball back – something, on average, only five centre-forwards do more often per 90 minutes – but the key element is what he does when he retrieves it. He switches defence to attack.
Much of Jurgen Klopp’s strategy is based around using transitions to break quickly, before the opposition get back into shape, when Liverpool get the ball.
In statistics produced by the Comparisonator website, Firmino tops the charts among centre-forwards for most ball recoveries that lead to a shot within 20 seconds – or quick, deadly counter-attacks, in short – by averaging 0.79 per 90 minutes.
Only one striker gets remotely close; tellingly, it is his former understudy, Southampton’s Danny Ings, at 0.75. Manchester City’s Gabriel Jesus, whose high pressing is, Pep Guardiola claims, the best he has seen, is a distant third.
If Firmino initially stands out off the ball, with his incessant effort, he then excels on it.
The figures suggest he is both the busiest and the best striker in possession. He averages 26.1 passes per 90 minutes. That would not be a remarkable tally for a midfielder. It is for a striker.
It puts him in a different league to any of his counterparts, with 20 per cent more than anyone else. The closest are two wingers, assessed purely in their outings in central positions: Southampton Nathan Redmond (21.0) and Tottenham’s Heung-Min Son (20.6). The conventional forwards all have fewer.
It is not merely a question of how often Firmino passes, but where. This can illustrate how unique he is.
Perhaps Liverpool, as the division’s best team this season, should be in the opposition’s half more than most, but Firmino averages 2.99 successful passes in the final third every 90 minutes.
It means he is 45 per cent better than anyone else, with Harry Kane next on 2.1. David McGoldrick ranks third and the Ireland international has one unfortunate common denominator with Firmino – a lack of home goals, compounded by his inability to score away – the Sheffield United man figures highly on some of the same lists.
Firmino does not just stand out in the context of the Premier League.
Transplant his statistics to another league and it shows how hard he would be to replace if he left Liverpool.
No Bundesliga forward averages as many passes into the final third or as many ball recoveries that lead to a shot. No La Liga or Serie A striker wins the ball back to set up a chance as often. Only one La Liga striker completes more passes in the final third of the pitch. And he is Lionel Messi.
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Brief scores
Day 1
Toss England, chose to bat
England, 1st innings 357-5 (87 overs): Root 184 not out, Moeen 61 not out, Stokes 56; Philander 3-46
The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%201.8-litre%204-cyl%20turbo%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E190hp%20at%205%2C200rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20320Nm%20from%201%2C800-5%2C000rpm%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeven-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFuel%20consumption%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.7L%2F100km%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20From%20Dh111%2C195%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ENow%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Where to apply
Applicants should send their completed applications - CV, covering letter, sample(s) of your work, letter of recommendation - to Nick March, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National and UAE programme administrator for the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism, by 5pm on April 30, 2020.
Please send applications to nmarch@thenational.ae and please mark the subject line as “Rosalynn Carter Fellowship for Mental Health Journalism (UAE programme application)”.
The local advisory board will consider all applications and will interview a short list of candidates in Abu Dhabi in June 2020. Successful candidates will be informed before July 30, 2020.
Scorline
Iraq 1-0 UAE
Iraq Hussein 28’
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Price: From Dh180,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged and supercharged in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 320hp @ 5,700rpm
Torque: 400Nm @ 2,200rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 9.7L / 100km
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
