Daichi Kamada: The heir to Roberto Firmino at Liverpool?

It’s no secret that goals were an issue for Liverpool last season; a failed off-season push for the now Chelsea Striker Timo Werner and an over-reliance on wide players like Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota for goals left the Reds to scrape into a third-place finish.

The Merseyside team had the best non-penalty expected goals with 68.1 but only finished with 65 actual goals. Compare that to Manchester City’s expected 66.6 goals and 82 actual goals, its obvious some finishing prowess is needed to get them back to title contention.

Daichi Kamada is a 25-year-old Japanese attacker, who currently plays for Eintracht Frankfurt and fits the bill of the false-nine Liverpool are looking for.

Kamada, the false 9 solution for Liverpool

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Kamada started his career in his native Japan playing for Sagan Tosu before making the move to Germany and Eintracht Frankfurt in 2017, where he has gone from strength to strength in very tactically adept teams.

Now, Kamada has traditionally played as an attacking midfield but finds playing as a striker an ease to him, as with the Japan national side he often plays further forward.

It is Kamada’s link-up play, awareness and technical ability going forward and in front of goal that really makes him a good fit in Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side.

In 2020/21, the Japan International averaged 0.44 assists per 90, 4.27 shot-creating actions per 90 and 9.49 progressive passes received per 90.

This shows that Kamada can do the same things as Roberto Firmino is currently responsible for; bringing the ball forward while creating space and opportunities for the other two players in the front three.

He excels in creating space as he brings other players close with his dribbling but it’s his passing into space ability, which arguably makes him a better option than Firmino.

Kamada has scored 31 goals over the last three seasons and though that is not extreme goalscoring prowess it is a good standpoint to work from.

The playmaker has learned the German league in no time at all and after playing under Adi Hutter, a very tactical manager, Kamada can be modelled into the full false 9 forward in no time.

The Reds will most likely stick with Firmino for the time being but Kamada makes for a younger, like-for-like player, who could give them an extra dimension should they wish to push the pedal on this transfer.