Florian WIRTZ: 2026/27

I;m confident we will see the best of him this season when Iraola has got the rest of the team to gel. Patience mon braves!

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Where do people find the energy to debate over what age is young/not young, young enough/not young enough, maybe young enough for a keeper but not a #9 or 10, oh my lord.

Let’s just all agree he’s 23, with time on his side and will turn into a world class acquisition from next week onwards. EVERYBODY’S HAPPY.

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Here in Germany recieves Flo more critism than here at TAN.

What is being said about him? In Germanyland.

thats

Hmm I see.

Well, probably fair for now. We all know his output and impact needs to improve. Hopefully it does.

My compatriot is criticised far more harshly and severely back home than he is here on ā€˜TAN’. And above all, the ā€˜Erfolgsfans’ (also known as ā€˜glory hunters’ in England) from the club on SƤbener Straße in Munich take it upon themselves to tear him to pieces. But unfortunately, they’re not the only ones.

I don’t see much point in comparing. They all had their own paths and also played different positions. Age is not an issue here. He’s a an international player with just under 300 senior games, 75 goals and even more assists. Already won a few trophies. We might have to find another solution if we can’t get the balance right with him in that role. I’m happy to have him now and for the near future, but at some point objectivelly there will be absolutely no excuses left.

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Ja, natürlich (Yes, of course).

Florian Wirtz must do play better. He must do better performance. Of course.

Another disappointing half a season will be a deal breaker for me.

And let’s not ignore his impact on the coach’s system. I mean, coaches had to change their favoured systems to integrate him into the team, when it should be the other way around. I mean, Arteta and Enrique buy players who fit their systems instead of changing their systems to integrate a few expensive players.

Well the point is that he“s a young player still and so some of his inconsistency can be expected. It was present with other top players at that age who we now see with the benefit of hindsight.

But yes there will come a point where we give up on him if nothing improves. He has to do better than this.

That said, we simply must set up the team properly to get the best out of him and we aren“t doing that. We are not really committing to him as a 10. So either we do that or we don“t bother with him.

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He performed and won at a higher level than some of those mentioned ones in the earlier parts of their career, so what do we do with that information? Not much to be found out in comparing. Yes, 23 is certainly not old, but he’s not a kid and he’s in his second season now. There is time, but he also has to merit a certain amount of that time. There’s not only him, although he will hopefully become one of our key players. I’ll wait a little bit more before seeing what we’re trying to do under Iraola. Right now, we are trying with him in a central role. But it’s early days still. It’s not ā€œhe becomes a success here as a #10 this seasonā€ or bust. I don’t see it that radical. I was a big fan of the move for him, but as always, Liverpool comes above any individual.

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Well yes and no. The German league isn“t that good anymore and he hadn“t exactly lit up the Champions League. And for the season he was 22. He“s now 23 so we“d expect a bit more maturity. He delivered good performances before us but not world class or anything.

Yes we have to wait and see what Iraola tries to do. So far I am not sure he either understands or wants to focus on Wirtz so much, but we will see as the games progress. Obviously he hooked him pretty early so he“s probably open to not playing wirth Wirtz in the side.

For me he absolutely showed world class material. Also why he got such a move. We shouldn’t put all of our focus on Wirtz anyway. But he said recently that he views him as a player who can do it under him in a functional Liverpool side. That’s how I understood what he wanted to say. On Isak, he said he knows he’s a serious goalscorer and that the focus with him is more off the ball and how he positions himself and links with other players. The rest, well it’s mostly up to the players. If we talk about age and time, perhaps we could give it a few more weeks and months to see what we really do. It’s only matchday 1 behind us and the transfer market is still open.

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I think Wirtz will be fine… he has much better chemistry on the pitch with Hugo E than he does with Isak… Hugo has more movement and plays better passes.

Dynamic players like Barcola would open space for Wirtz to operate.

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I’m really looking forward to the moment when Ekitike will be back, with Isak on the pitch as well. That attacking trio has the potential to blow opposing defences into pieces. The thing is to get them fit all three at the same time… fingers crossed that we’ll see this in a few months.

Even now, without Ekitike, the chemistry between Wirtz and Isak will surely improve if both get more time together on the pitch. I for one am looking forward to see this partnership blossom.

Yeah, you absolutely don’t want to play in Premier League with your wings cut off. You can get away with playing both Eli and Isak in a few easy CL games, but not in Premier League.

And I’d rather starting Rio, a real winger, over playing Ekitike on the left.

I don’t think his ā€˜intensive musculation course’ helped last season. However there’s not the movement off the ball under Slot, so let’s see if that improves. Also recieving the ball earlier than we’ve seen would help, so often he finds the space yet doesn’t receive the ball which honestly is very important.
Of course in the EPL he’s probably got less time when recieving the ball, which is why I wasn’t happy about him muscling up as often that causes agility and reaction time problems.
I hope we see improvements this season from all aspects of our play, we’ll see.

Are Premier League defenders in general that much better than defenders from the Bundesliga that Florian has completely abandoned attempts at dribbling? Look at his highlight reels from his time at Leverkusen. He literally ran past 3-4 even five defenders with fair regularity. He seems to have completely abandoned that approach in the PL. That kind of run can open up opportunities for other players to score. Or for him to score. He was like Gerrard but more skill and trickery rather than physicality.

Where has that player gone?

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Yes the Premier League has much better defending (though not great). I always thought Sancho would struggle with it and he did. As did Antony who was hyped as a dribbler.

That said, Wirtz was dribbling fairly nicely in the middle of last season, and then just kinda stopped and passed sideways and back.

Definitely a huge mental component to his issues.

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