Firmino had a place on the bench on Tuesday night at Atalanta as Jota started and scored a hat-trick in Liverpool’s 5-0 win over the Serie A outfit.
Jota has scored more goals this season than Firmino has in the calendar year and there are growing calls for the Portuguese to displace the Brazilian in the Reds starting eleven.
Nicol admits that is a dilemma for Klopp especially because of the goals Jota has been consistently scoring, but he feels the Liverpool manager will still back the Brazilian to start.
He believes the Liverpool boss still trusts Firmino to do the job that he does for the side up front despite his lack of goals and insisted that the Brazilian will get the nod over Jota against Manchester City on Sunday.
Nicol said on ESPN FC: “This is the dilemma that Klopp has.
“Yes, Jota has come in and scored a lot of goals, but does Klopp get carried away by the amount of goals he is scoring or is he still more interested in what Firmino without the goals, still brings to Liverpool?
“And it is getting very close now.
“It is all about goals and so, Jota is not far off from starting ahead of Firmino. However, I don’t think he is there yet.
“It is an incredible burst of goals, but I still think Klopp trusts Firmino and I still think Klopp will go with him because of the way he knits things together.
“If anybody deserves it, Jota deserves to start but I don’t think he will, not at the weekend.”
Firmino has scored just once this season for the Reds this season and is now coming under serious pressure from Jota.
