Roberto Firmino was in scintillating form for Liverpool during their 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace.

The Reds striker has come under fire this year with many identifying that, while he is by no means an out-and-out goalscorer, his statistics in front of goal have taken too sharp of a plunge.

Besides, only nine Premier League goals on the way to title-winning glory last season is hardly much to write home about when you're sharing a front three with Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Firmino under fire

That's not to say that Firmino didn't make sufficient contributions - to say so would be short-sighted - but there comes a point when you simply need more goals from your number nine.

At the start of this season, it seemed to be the same old story with Diogo Jota even threatening to dislodge Firmino from a front three line-up that had practically become set in stone since 2017.

But that couldn't be further from the case right now with Firmino's goal against Leicester City last month seemingly reinvigorating the Brazilian, who is valued at £64.8 million, after a series of incredibly unlucky misses.

Back in the goals

Now, Firmino seems to have found his stride again and that couldn't have been more apparent than in the aforementioned rout at Selhurst Park with Liverpool's frontman scoring twice.

His first strike featured a delicious touch that's so typical of his skillset, while the second showcased an impudent chip over the goalkeeper and there was even time for him to contribute an assist.

It was, by all accounts, a fantastic performance from Firmino and one that raises a huge middle finger to claims that his days of leading the Liverpool line are over.

Twitter thread defends Liverpool

And to the credit of Kopites, they've been making this point for quite some time, even when Firmino was 'popular' to hate upon and that couldn't have been clearer than in a fantastic Twitter thread.

Twitter user @JotinhoLFC cobbled together the thread earlier in December, sarcastically titling it: "Exposing the fraud that is Roberto Firmino. A system baller with no actual ability. He has fooled us for long enough now."

It's fair to say the evidence they duly provided makes a mockery of claims that Firmino is overrated, so do yourself a favour and check out their video-ladened argument down below:

Cut Firmino some slack

Let's face it, modern football attributes far too much importance to statistics and that makes Firmino an easy target when being a few goals short seemingly can't be explained away by his role.

We all know that Liverpool don't play with the intention of crossing the ball into Firmino every ten seconds and making him the centre point, so why do we pretend that's the case from time to time?

Only nine league goals last season is hard to defend, granted, but you'd be hard-pressed to say that it came as a major detriment to Liverpool when they proceeded to win the title with 99 points.

So, yes, it is healthy competition having Jota breathing down his neck, but it's hard to see a world where Firmino doesn't keep getting the nod whenever his goal-scoring is returning to its best.