Andoni Iraola has offered firm backing to Florian Wirtz as criticism of the Liverpool midfielder continues to build, aligning himself with the view already expressed by J\u00fcrgen Klopp.<\/p>\n
Wirtz has faced increasing scrutiny over a modest return of goals and assists, with frustration around his output rising after each passing week. Yet Iraola was clear in his defence ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Bournemouth, stressing that the German should be assessed in the same way as every other player.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe should be judged like everybody else, whether he plays well or doesn\u2019t play well\u201d Iraola told reporters at his Friday news conference. \u201cMostly I always say how does the team play when you are on the pitch? I am very happy with Florian, I rate him very highly, he understands what we need from him. He is trying to help in every aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we want him to have assists and goals also, but he is helping us in a lot of different areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klopp has also defended Wirtz this week after naming his first squad since becoming Germany head coach. The former Liverpool manager selected two separate squads of 44 players for the upcoming three-week international break, with Wirtz included among them.<\/p>\n
Asked about the player\u2019s recent displays, Klopp was equally supportive. \u201cI think he\u2019s the player who covered the most ground at Liverpool this season, so the willingness is absolutely there,\u201d Klopp told media on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to move away from expecting to always see special moments in front of goal from him. He needs to help us as a team. We have to make sure Flo feels comfortable with us. When the team works, every player shines as a result.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we have to be satisfied when Flo plays a game in which he gave everything but didn\u2019t register a goal or assist. We need to give the boy the feeling, \u2018That was more than good enough today. You helped us as a team.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
There is little mystery behind the growing frustration. Wirtz arrived with significant expectation, and supporters have naturally wanted more decisive contributions. Still, his work without the ball has improved under Iraola, with the midfielder leading his teammates for possession won in the final third and distance covered per 90 minutes in the Premier League. Even so, when measured against other attacking midfielders at England\u2019s elite sides last season, he fell short.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iraola and Klopp defend Wirtz as criticism grows, stressing his team role and work rate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19756,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[739,175],"tags":[1162,180,182],"class_list":["post-19757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","category-liverpool","tag-analytics","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}