Florian Wirtz\u2019s two assists against Eintracht were more than match-defining moments. They crystallised a conversation already running through Liverpool: is the creative baton shifting from Mohamed Salah to the 22-year-old Wirtz?<\/p>\n
Wirtz arrived from Bayer Leverkusen for \u00a3116 million and, at Deutsche Bank Park, he started on the right with Salah on the bench. The German stayed wide when Eintracht had the ball and moved centrally to pull the strings when Liverpool were in possession. His movement created space without the ball and, in one sequence, he dashed right to drag two defenders away and open a lane for Curtis Jones.<\/p>\n
Wirtz\u2019s numbers from the night underlined his influence: 56 of 63 passes completed, both long balls on target, and four chances created. His cross to Cody Gakpo split Michael Zetterer and Robin Koch, and his layoff to Dominik Szoboszlai illustrated an increasingly promising connection.<\/p>\n
That said, Wirtz\u2019s arrival has not been met with unqualified praise. He had no goals or assists in eight Premier League appearances and only an assist in the Community Shield before his double, and there are concerns about physicality after he was bumped off the ball by Nathaniel Brown in the move that led to Eintracht\u2019s goal. Yet the two assists will do much to bolster others\u2019 belief in him.<\/p>\n
The other side to the debate is Salah. He is 33, cannot take his place for granted, and recent numbers show a decline: compared to last season he is averaging half as many shots, fewer goals and assists and far fewer touches in the opposition box. Statistic (PL Average) 2024\u201325 2025\u201326 Goals 0.77 0.25 Shots 3.2 1.8 Assists 0.48 0.25 Chances created 2.4 1.9 Touches in opp. box 9.5 5.3 Stats via FBref. Correct as of Oct. 23, 2025.<\/p>\n
There are many explanations offered, from tactical changes and the loss of Trent Alexander-Arnold to personal grief after the death of Diogo Jota. Salah\u2019s record for the club remains exceptional: 248 goals and 113 assists in 413 games, plus two Premier League titles, one Champions League, one FA Cup and two EFL Cups. The current debate should recognise both Wirtz\u2019s growing influence and Salah\u2019s historic contribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wirtz’s two assists against Eintracht intensified the debate over whether Salah’s role is shifting..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[299,872,1098],"class_list":["post-3976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-arne-slot","tag-cody-gakpo","tag-curtis-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976","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=3976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}