Following Philippe Coutinho's departure from Liverpool, another Brazilian has been taking centre stage at Anfield.

Roberto Firmino has been in fine form for the Merseyside outfit this season, scoring 20 goals in all competitions.

The forward has linked up well with Mohamed Salah, and that was evident at the weekend when Firmino's flick helped his teammate score the second in a 2-0 win over Southampton at St Mary's.

Sky Sports pundit Charlie Nicholas thinks that the 26-year-old will be pivotal in Liverpool's Champions League last-16 first leg against Porto in Portugal.

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Jurgen Klopp's men pride themselves on their attacking prowess, and they have proved many times this season that they can devastate teams on the counter-attack.

Luis Suarez was Liverpool's star attraction a few years ago, but his scintillating form earned him a move to Barcelona in 2014.

Nicholas has made a bold statement by claiming that Firmino is becoming as important to the Reds as Suarez was.

In a piece for Sky Sports, the former Arsenal forward said:

"Salah has obviously been fantastic but I'm a big fan of Firmino and his work rate and his link-up play are different class. He's not quite Luis Suarez, but he's not far off."