J\u00fcrgen Klopp urged Liverpool supporters to \u201cbe happy\u201d after Florian Wirtz delivered a standout display for Germany against Serbia, but that reaction papers over the reason the midfielder has looked short of his best on Merseyside.<\/p>\n
Klopp was glowing in his assessment. \u201cHe was bursting with joy and worked incredibly hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was exceptional; he played a fantastic game. Our style of play suits him.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what he has to do to make everyone happy, but everyone in Liverpool should be happy today.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is no doubt Wirtz was influential. He scored once, created six chances, and registered more key passes than anyone else on the pitch. He also finished with more chances created than misplaced passes, a sharp contrast to his return across six Liverpool appearances this season, where he has managed only one assist and is still waiting for his first goal.<\/p>\n
But the national-team context matters. Wirtz has not been dominant every time he has played for Germany. He failed to score at the World Cup when Germany were knocked out by Paraguay in the round of 32, and he was anonymous in last weekend\u2019s defeat to Greece. Serbia, too, offered favourable conditions. They are on a five-match losing streak after failing to qualify for the largest World Cup ever, and have conceded at least two goals in each of those defeats.<\/p>\n
Wirtz himself acknowledged the space he was given. \u201cThe opponent gave us more space because they were a bit more disorganized and perhaps looked to counter more,\u201d he said. \u201cThat created more spaces that we utilized well.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also admitted his preference: \u201cWhat do I need to be at my best?\u201d Wirtz shrugged. \u201cIdeally, a lot of space in every game so I can do what I want!\u201d<\/p>\n
That is the problem. Liverpool do not regularly offer that kind of freedom. The player also looks more effective when allowed to roam, yet this season he has largely been confined to the left wing. Against Serbia, he moved across the attacking third and benefited from the movement around him. \u201cThe players around me also made it very easy for me today,\u201d Wirtz explained. \u201cThere was a lot of movement in our game, and we were all eager to play football. That makes it easier to shine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Klopp praised Wirtz, but his Serbia display did not solve the Liverpool puzzle or explain it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21156,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961,175],"tags":[1162,180,182],"class_list":["post-21157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-liverpool","tag-analytics","tag-player-news","tag-transfers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21157","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=21157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}