As soon as you pay £100m for a player most of football is desperate for him to be a flop.
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It would reduce the noise if his international manager would shut the fuck up. Always been a prick
Those are some of the successful cases, there are other, unsuccessful cases where certain players struggled and never managed to turn it around. It’s also not linear sometimes. Like we’ve seen with Szobo. The first few months of him here, the impressions from the public was that he’s the true Gerrard replacement and someone who will challenge and then takeover de Bruyne’s mantle in the league as the most creative offensive midfielder…
But I do believe in Wirtz. That said though, I also believed in some players who flopped or never managed to fully become a success here. In our life time supporting a club, there will be a lot of both scenarios (regardless of the price paid), it’s just how it is.
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Having a few more assists to his name would be nice, but it’s also one part of the game and doesn’t tell the full story. But again, I don’t expect from his two head coaches to go full honest in press conferences.
The struggles of Dom in his first season I think are being drastically over stated. He definitely fell off in the spring, as the team in general did, and if I recall correctly it was related to a muscle injury he picked up that it took him a few months to shake off. But prior to that he was considered neck and neck with Mac for signing of the season.
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That is very fair. I was extremely high on Naby Keita when we signed him, and he never settled in here (injuries had a lot to do with that). I was also very high on Nunez. Thought he’d be better than Haaland here. And while he had bright moments, he was ultimately a flop.
So, there’s no guarantees. But I just see too much class in Wirtz, too much effort, for me to think it won’t click together at some point in the future.
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Likewise the good chances hes been given he should have taken.
Plus also this talk of created chances is noise.
Wirtz, who himself has had 12 shots in the Premier League, three of which have been on target, has created just one big chance Salah against Chelsea.
Plus his stats for last year had him ranked 5th in attacking midfielders.
Wirtz gives me all the vibes of Veron amazing player never suited to England.
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True.
Naby was a plasticine man and Nunez not clinical enough (and I’m not convinced smart enough) but I did like his efforts.
Other serious hopefuls that immediately come to mind who just did not deliver enough were Kewell and Alcantara. Incredible talents just decimated by injury unfortunately.
If Flo stays fit he will not be mentioned with these guys. I am busting for him to now dominate.
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Even more than that, I’d say he was considered the signing of the season. Because it took Mac a bit of time to fully show himself (we were initially playing him as a single pivot #6, which isn’t really his best role).
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He’s the last person I would be worried about…
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Yeah, the reality is that we will have plenty of both: successes and flops. And some layers in between let’s say. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out even if everything on paper seems good. All these individual cases are of course also linked with the state of the club and football team at a given time.
Graham recently said that he’d still do the Keita deal if he had to go back in time. There are some other ones where I’m pretty sure most of us wouldn’t. I was also highly excited about the Keita deal (like a number of others), though less so and more skeptical about Nunez. I didn’t know him in enough detail from Portugal and was waiting to see his strengths and weaknesses. Some aspects are sometimes clear very quickly, even in pre-season or the start of the season.
Fans are mostly positive (which is natural), hoping or encouraging each other among ourselves that all these players will succeed. The amount that fail despite that (and getting real support where it matters) is pretty big, I’d say. Some players really need a certain amount of time (or some things to change), but there were also cases where time didn’t change much, or they didn’t deserve more than what they got. Some got even more time than what they deserved.
Hopefully Wirtz becomes what he was brought to be, a decisive player both for the present and future.
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Do you have the quote on that? I’m assuming that he meant that there was nothing to indicate that it would be a bad transfer on paper. I remember when they signed Thiago, I was worried about his injury track record (also, it seemed to be Bayern that was pushing that deal).
I actually think Wirtz has been doing well in an underperforming team. I do have my doubts about a couple of other recent signings.
Soon we forget the summer and the motto YNWA.
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The interview he did with Roger Bennet on Men in Blazers.
It was a really good one. His basic point was that even with hindsight of knowing it didnt work out there was absolutely nothing in the data that would see differently to make him think differently about how good a fit he was.
He said something along the lines of it going wrong even before his injuries because he was just myopically focused on going forward immediately every time and came in at a time when Jurgen was already trying to transition into a more patient team that was better suited to deal with the lower table sides that just sat off us. Graham said he drove Jurgen absolutely nuts 
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Why ?
He’s completely unaffected by the noise around him. The rest is simply a matter of time
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It’s ok to discuss Wirtz, but we shouldn’t overburden the lad, he’s just left home for the first time, is only 23 and has joined an intermittently shite team. He looks too good to be a flop this one. He’ll come good once the lot does. I also dont think he is a key reason we are up and down, more out than in. Im leaning to it being the managers tactics, nevertheless, the situation is cack, because we’ve too many new faces, too much change. Full circle. Wirtz, Isak…Kerkez etc.
We bought 6 players, only one is working, Ekitike. Thats chronic.
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you do wonder what went down for Wirtz to be famously convinced by Slots ‘plan for him’ and what exactly that plan was, whether Slot is making good on his commitment (cant be, can he?) and ultimately whether the arrivals after Wirtz had him excited or baffled…(in regards to the master plan)
because whatever the plan was, this cant be it, surely?
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