Despite comfortably cruising to the 2024/25 Premier League title, it's set to be a summer of reinforcements for Liverpool. While Bayer Leverkusen's superstar winger/midfielder Florian Wirtz has not put pen to paper on any official deal, a transfer appears imminent.
Where would he play for the Reds? Wirtz's heatmap reads like a dark red blanked: he's lined up in practically every offensive zone imaginable, bringing hope he could play in each of coach Arne Slot's front four positions.
Longtime Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher thinks Domink Szoboszlai — Slot's usual attacking midfielder — could see his position under threat next year. "I have been critical of Dominik Szoboszlai and I think he does sometimes lack that creativity," Carragher opined on the Sky Sports broadcast of Liverpool-Crystal Palace.
"His numbers tell you that. You wouldn't want to lose his athleticism, though. Alexis Mac Allister probably isn't the most athletic and he makes up for that," he continued.
"Wirtz can play in a number of positions. You look at where he plays for Leverkusen, it is often from the left. Liverpool is almost playing with a 'false 9' today in Luis Diaz. He can do that, and he can play where Szoboszlai is. There are a number of roles he can play."
Diaz has started most league games on the left, though Slot opted to try him at center forward a handful of times when Diogo Jota was hurt and Darwin Nunez struggled to score.
Wirtz Szoboszlai
Wirtz and Szoboszlai have faced off a handful of times, both at international level and in the Bundesliga (Image: Getty Images)
He's found himself the subject of a shock transfer to Barcelona, with club's manager Hansi FLick even addressing the topic in a recent press conference.
“I don’t want to speak about players which are not in my team, but of course Luis Diaz and Marcus Rashford are fantastic players," the German manager admitted. "I like them and we’ll see what happens.”
Wirtz scored 10 goals and added a further 12 assists as Leverkusen finished second in the Bundesliga. His 0.50 npXG+xA per 90 was down 0.10 from last season's title-winning campaign.
As an attacking midfielder and winger, he profiles similarly to some of the best players in the world, ranking in the 96th percentile for take-ons and the 98th for passes attempted.
As a forward, his goal/assist tallies don't appear as strong, but he manages to rank in the 99th percentile of shot-creating actions. For Slot, Wirtz's addition would be a good problem to have.