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I give a good amount of weight to some of the excuses that can be made for him, but even I will admit he isnāt helping himself. As a player there are things you cannot control and they can impact how effective your performances are capable of being. But there are things you are responsible for and no amount of complaining that your teammates are not seeing the passes you want to make and arenāt making themselves available for them excuse how meekly he loses possession so often. Poor protection of the ball, a casual flick, or a hopeful pass of the ball into no where. Protect the ball in those situations and maybe weād be better able to develop the platform needed for his more clever stuff to come out.
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Isak isnāt getting a pass from me, he was pitiful. How can a 6ft4 forward not win a single duel all game? Last 20mins when Bournemouth were pinning us back, we had 10 players defending the box with everything and this big lump was walking about and not once did he offer any relief. Sorry but this is Liverpool FC and youāre our record signing, a tap in aint gonna cut it.
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Like I said Iām sure he would get back to his best in Germany and Spain. Opponents in the PL just donāt give him time with the ball at his feet.
Doubt there are many teams Wirtz would agree to sign for whoād actually be interested.
Bayern donāt need him and I doubt they will be interested again.
Can see interest by Barca and sometimes Atletico buy players like that.
Can see interest by Dortmund but doubt they would be ready to buy straightaway. So maybe it will be a year loan and then they buy him.
There was one notable time he fought for the ball well, held off the CB and got a shot off from it. By the end he was knackered and so right now he seems to be playing with that striker mentality of finding the energy to battle if he thinks he can make a goal scoring chance out of it but not often enough otherwise. Kind of like how midfielders have the energy to get into the opposition box but the energy to track back
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And this was my worry with both of them even before they kicked a ball.
How would they fit into our team and our way of playing.
So do you think thatās a fitness thing or itās his fitness ceiling and he has to manage himself through a match?
Vanity buys from Hughes imagining we were going to become something like Real Madrid.
Just imagine if that money had been invested in three or four of the type of players we actually needed.
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Itās certainly at least part a fitness thing. But possibly in part a confidence or dog issue. I worry how much of it is the latter.
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The thing I didnāt like hearing is āwe are champions, letās start acting like a big clubā. Thatās not how Liverpool wins championships in modern times we get the squad together that we need. Not the individual players and then figure out what to do with them. We absolutely need the right pieces to elevate the team and we win as a team, we donāt win this as individuals. And currently we have individuals who are undoubtedly talented but in the wrong setting even the most talented Individual will look rudderless
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He doesnĀ“t need to be running as much as he does and so I think heĀ“d be sharper without that.
But he looks devoid of any confidence or energy to his play. No slickness or cockiness that a number 10 quite frankly needs to have. He did have it in the middle of last year when he was starting to put it together.
He also seems to have no real connection with anyone. At one point Gakpo spent almost 10 seconds running right at him with the ball instead of passing it into him. Maybe says a lot.
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cant be arsed clicking on the link and listening even just for a second, butā¦if Carra says Wirtz cant be in the Liverpool team, then mark this down as the moment it all clicks for Floā¦
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I am sticking with Flo. Heās a LFC player afterall.
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I just watched it - he isnāt slating him he just says what we are seeing is what Wirtz is - neat and tidy but heās not going to hurt anyone. Also with Wirtz being in the team its stifling Sozbozlai who is having to play further back and thatās not working either.
Iām just wondering is there anyone on here who can say - yep Wirtz is playing exactly how I thought he would.
I really thought we were getting a magician who would hurt teams who sat deep but we havenāt seen it. I can think of a few games where heās been great - Burnley and Newcastle at home last season but other than that I cannot think of many āgreatā performances.
I dont think he is a bad player, the lads clearly talented but for some reason he is struggling.
People were saying itll be better when we get fast wingers and Isak backā¦well, we have both now and its still not clicking for him.
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We all want him to succeed but we want our team to succeed more. Andoni has a big selection decision to make after international break.
How is Wirtz stifling Szoboszlai. Szoboszlai doesnāt offer what we need there. Szoboszlai would be best wider on the right!
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Agree.
Dom has power to run with the ball through the lines, Wirtz is about passing through the lines. We need one that does both.
Personally, I still believe Wirtz will come good. Sadly, that price tag is used as a stick to beat him with (rightly so I guess).
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Itās who we bought I donāt think we have a choice.
If anything the blame should be on the club if there is any. They have made quite a lot of errors imo.
Anyway more interesting to me is Dom who I feel could come good under the new manager. Iāve often criticised him in the past due to his poor pressing, vision and positioning. Iām really hoping he can be better channeled and more disciplined to rediscover that great player we had when he joined us all those years ago.
This is a great example of the Wirtz conversation being off track
https://x.com/donhutch4/status/2101962154148511977?s=20
There are so many preconceived ideas of who he is, and if he is struggling why that would be, that just arenāt connected to how he is playing. He does work hard and does get stuck in. His issue is far more the time he wants on the ball, and a seeming sense of now over thinking things in response to the overall teamās struggles in his year here. These are not physical issues and plenty of less robust or fit players have thrived in this league doing what is expected of him.
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