Jamie Carragher has weighed in on Florian Wirtzplaceholder image
Jamie Carragher has weighed in on Florian Wirtz | Getty Images
Florian Wirtz has struggled to make the impact that was expected of him in the Premier League but he has shown how he could be influential by starring for Germany.
Arne Slot would have wanted another game as quickly as possible after the sobering defeat to Man City but he has probably taken more than most out of the international break.
Didier Deschamps did the Reds boss a favour by playing Hugo Ekitike on the left wing where he looked a constant threat with the ball at his feet. In games that are more open, the France international could well be an alternative option to challenge Cody Gakpo. Almost as if seeing his club teammate thrive in what has become his position of late, Florian Wirtz served an almost instant reminder of what he is capable playing in a wider role.
Florian Wirtz shows how Liverpool can get the best out of him
To confuse matters further for Slot, Gakpo scored for the Netherlands and Rio Ngumoha scored for England Under-19s, he doesn’t have a shortage of options for the left. It was Wirtz who truly showed what he is capable of though and Germany provided the sort of game plan that Liverpool could follow. Wirtz’s first assist saw him drop to the halfway line on Germany’s left before playing a one-two with Nick Woltemade, then he played a 50-yard diagonal pass through and over Slovakia’s defence for Leroy Sane to run onto and finish.
There is no reason why Ekitike and Salah couldn’t link in a similar fashion to create a similar type of goal. Sane with two goals and an assist only just beat Wirtz to man of the match against Slovakia with a rating on FotMob of 9.3, Wirtz receiving 9.2 as a more than satisfactory consolation. The 22-year old had a 94% pass success rate which was topped by the six chances that he created and the three big chances that he set up for teammates. Off the ball, Wirtz also made nine recoveries and won 3/5 ground duels.
Wirtz defended as dad fires back at Gary Neville jibe
Not bad for a player branded a “little boy” by Gary Neville after the defeat to City, a remark that didn’t go down too well with Wirtz’s dad and agent: Wirtz Sr. had little time for Neville’s comments. “I only take the criticism from the former internationals in passing,” he told Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger. “Florian is a young man who wants to prove himself in a new environment. Less than a third of the season has been played.
“So far, everything is going as expected; it’s a completely normal settling-in process, entirely independent of any transfer fee,” Hans Wirtz, who serves as one of his son’s agents in a unique double act with his wife Karin Groß, added. “And: If you look at the statistics more closely, you can see that Florian’s stats regarding his involvement in the game are already quite good; only assists and goals are still pending.”
The assists for Germany show what is possible if his teammates trust him which hasn’t always been the case since arriving at Anfield, but it hasn’t been for the want of trying according to someone who knows him well. For all his individual class, Flo is above all one thing: a total team player," Simon Rolfes, the Bayer Leverkusen managing director of sport, told KSTA. "Flo thrives on combination play, but at the moment Liverpool hasn't quite gelled as a team yet. That makes things more difficult for Flo."
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