Liverpool manager Arne Slot said he expects Florian Wirtz to be absent only briefly after the midfielder picked up a back issue in the warm-up before Sunday\u2019s victory over Nottingham Forest. Slot did not think the problem was major and indicated Wirtz was withdrawn because he could not start at the required level.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe felt his back in the warm-up,\u201d Slot said after the win. \u201cWe don\u2019t think it\u2019s serious. He wasn\u2019t able to be 100% or close enough to it to start.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter being in this league for six months, he knows no matter how good you are on the ball, you need to be 100%. We hope he\u2019ll be with us next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wirtz\u2019s start to life at Liverpool drew scrutiny after the club paid \u00a3116.5 million ($157.4 million) for his transfer, but those questions have quietened in recent weeks as the German produced strong form. He has five goals and two assists in 2026 and has begun to show the kind of performances that convinced Liverpool to invest heavily.<\/p>\n
His absence was felt at Anfield, where Slot admitted the team produced perhaps their worst display since he took charge. The match required a 97th-minute strike from Alexis Mac Allister to secure a win Slot acknowledged the side did not deserve.<\/p>\n
Replacement Jones failed to create a single chance during his time on the pitch, while Wirtz had created seven chances in his previous four outings. Cody Gakpo also failed to register a chance, and Mohamed Salah offered just one opportunity before his withdrawal in the 77th minute. The introduction of 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha provided the spark Liverpool lacked and helped see the team through to a late victory.<\/p>\n
The sequence underlined Wirtz\u2019s growing importance to the side even when he is not on the field. Slot\u2019s assessment points to a short layoff with the club hopeful of his return next week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot expects Wirtz back next week after a back issue in the warm-up before Forest win; optimism soon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,172],"tags":[1081,1023,299],"class_list":["post-7040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-alexis-mac-allister","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040","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=7040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}