Arne Slot\u2019s side have yet to unlock the return on a high-profile signing. Jamie Carragher labelled his former team a \u201cmess\u201d, and he singled out \u00a3116 million addition Florian Wirtz, suggesting the German international has to \u201ccome out of the team\u201d for Liverpool to recover the form that delivered last season.<\/p>\n
Wirtz arrived amid the Alexander Isak saga and, for a brief spell, was the club\u2019s record signing. Expectations were high, but through eight Premier League and Champions League appearances he has not recorded a single goal or assist for the club. His combined expected goals (1.3) and expected assists (1.4) underline a lack of end-product so far.<\/p>\n
A closer look at involvement explains part of the problem. At Bayer Leverkusen Wirtz averaged 11.7 progressive passes received per 90 in his best seasons. At Liverpool that figure is down to 6.73. His touches per 90 have dropped from 77.8 last term to 56.3 this season, leaving fewer opportunities to build rhythm and influence play. In the Premier League alone he has six appearances, 437 minutes, zero goals and zero assists; in the Champions League he has two appearances and 163 minutes with the same return.<\/p>\n
Slot and Wirtz have acknowledged a physical adjustment is required, with Wirtz saying that “the effort he\u2019s showing out of possession is compromising his ability with the ball.” That extra running and the role Slot asks of him are likely factors in his reduced on-ball output. Liverpool also lack a consistent pipeline of line-splitting passes; Curtis Jones has shown that ability but has been used sparingly.<\/p>\n
There are positives. Wirtz linked early with Hugo Ekitik\u00e9, setting up his Community Shield goal, and combined well with Alexander Isak in the 3\u20132 win over Atl\u00e9tico Madrid. He produced strong spells against Arsenal, particularly from the left half-space.<\/p>\n
Slot must find a balance: give Wirtz clearer positioning, provide passers behind him, and consider team shape that restores his progression lines. Short-term changes, perhaps rotating Szoboszlai into the No. 10, may help, but the manager must settle on a structure that allows Wirtz to receive the ball in the positions that made him effective.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wirtz has produced moments but has zero goal contributions in eight Liverpool appearances so far…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,175],"tags":[1081,1019,1098],"class_list":["post-3543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-liverpool","tag-adaptation","tag-creative-players","tag-curtis-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543","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=3543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}