Florian WIRTZ: 2025/26

:face_with_spiral_eyes:

We will be selling him back to Bayern for 55m at this rate :wink:

1 Like

I thought he was really good in his 45mins on Saturday. The odd lose touch, and clear ā€˜wavelength’ issues at times, but you can see him growing in confidence.

The balls to even attempt that touch to Salah (who should have finished) was impressive. For a player under pressure to attempt that was encouraging.

7 Likes

I thought the wavelength thing was the main thing. There were a couple of times that he put the ball into a area that was a clear goal-scoring opportunity and none of our forwards read it. That kind of understanding will come with playing time, but it is hard enough with a couple of new players, let alone half a dozen.

1 Like

It’s a new way of playing for us, where in the past the threat has come from the wings with the midfield being more about energy than creativity. You don’t spend Ā£100m on a player like Wirtz without expecting him to be the creative fulcrum, and he replaces Trent in this regard.

The more I look at this team, the more I think that Isak and Wirtz have been bought to replace Mo Salah, and if you put Mo to one side (as we will in December), then the personnel really suit a 442 with a box or diamond midfield.

2 Likes

It’s not so black and white though. Modern teams want to be dangerous from multiple areas, not just either from wide areas or through the middle. We didn’t get enough in possession from Szobo in the #10 spot last season, so obviously we wanted to add more creativity between the lines and we had people to replace in attack.

Trent’s creativity is from deep, that is not Wirtz’s zone (he can drop a little bit to create overloads in midfield). We can say it helps to replace a part of the creativity in general. And I personally don’t see us changing the formation. It’s just the usual shouts when there’s a few bad results, by default you get a % of people calling for 3 at the back or a diamond shape (that is pretty rare in football).

Is it possible that we switch to Ekitike slightly behind as a second striker or alongside Isak while Mo is away? Of course it is. But I don’t think that was the reason we went so big for two strikers. I’d still expect us to be in our usual shape (a few differences aside like if it’s Gakpo or Wirtz on the left), if we do it.

1 Like

Problem he is facing is mostly media facing.

I said I’d expect to see more from him in Europe than in the league to start and I think his best display was Ath Madrid. I don’t think the Bayern mob help, they are coming across as salty cnuts.

6 Likes

Yes, I have noticed that Wirtz isn’t a right back. :joy:

My point is that Trent took a lot of creativity with him when he left, and that needed to be replaced. You are not going to get another right back that does what Trent did, so you have to get creativity elsewhere in the pitch.

1 Like

Interesting that Slot has tried to play Szobo at right back recently. It’s clearly an attempt to get creativity from that area of the pitch.

2 Likes

I think one of the things that is being missed in some of the analysis is that both RBs has been injured recently and even when they were both ā€œfitā€ neither was really match fit to the point of being able to rely on them to do 90 mins and go again the following week. Its been a very stop-start season for both of them

4 Likes

https://x.com/TheoTheoSquires/status/1975924151199117323

1 Like

This story is known as the Lallana. It is typically published 2 days before the news breaks that the player has damaged his hamstring and will be out for a month.

12 Likes

Especially the Bayern lot mainly from Roomyknickers who cannot let go off his bitterness by sniping at Wirtz for not choosing his club. Once we click and Slot finds the right formula we will have the last word. The club has stayed silent but there are a few German football stars who back him to make it at Liverpool and show the PL what he is made off.

9 Likes

Jurgen Klopp on Florian Wirtz:

ā€œI don’t have to worry about Florian Wirtz because his quality is so outstanding. Of course, everything is fine, and everyone knows that. The discussion is certainly being blown out of proportion.ā€

ā€œHe is a once-in-a-century talent and at some point, he’ll show that in every game again, as he did at Leverkusen.ā€

ā€œWirtz has a stable environment at Liverpool, and the club is great in moments like these. If anyone’s worried, you don’t have to! You can stop.ā€ (RTL)

9 Likes

No doubt this kind of thing helps the player too.

5 Likes

Been poor for Germany in last 2 games apparently.

Better men than us, Klopp and Dalglish for example see him as a superstar for Liverpool in the future.
I’ll take that.

7 Likes

I thought he was OK but Germany were rather poor.

3 Likes

Yeah all the blame will be put on him by certain press who are very keen to see him fail at Liverpool.

I’d ignore it, Germany were poor in both games and have been for a while now. Klopp will probably get the call post World Cup.

5 Likes

Aw shucks

1 Like