Liverpool beat Athletic Club in back-to-back friendlies at Anfield on Monday evening. In the first match, 16-year-old wonderkid Rio Nguhoma starred as Liverpool emerged 4-1 victors.
In the second game, Arne Slot fielded a much stronger lineup, with new signings Milos Kerkez, Jeremie Frimpong, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike, as well as Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk, all in the starting XI. The Reds were able to pick up another victory thanks to Salah's 14th minute strike and Cody Gakpo's second-half brace.
Florian Wirtz Given Low Rating by Stats Website
His highlights have since emerged
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All eyes were on Wirtz as he made his first appearance at Anfield. The German, who signed for Liverpool for a club-record £116 million fee from Bayer Leverkusen this summer, featured in the second match.
However, while he showed some neat touches and gave Liverpool fans a glimpse of his quality before making way in the 74th minute, statistics website SofaScore were not very impressed by his performance. They gave him a rating of just 6.0/10, which was the lowest rating given to any player in the second match.
He completed 28/35 of his passes (80%) and made two key passes. He was accurate with just one of his six crosses, didn't complete any of his four dribble attempts, missed two big chances and lost possession 17 times.
A compilation of his performance has been posted on X and it has gone viral, having attracted over 1.3k retweets and one million views. It makes for very interesting viewing amid the low rating from SofaScore. View it below...
Arne Slot: Wirtz Can Make Up For Trent Alexander-Arnold Loss
'He brings that creativity'
Arne Slot and Florian Wirtz
Slot spoke about Wirtz after the match. He said, per ESPN: "I think there is always room for improvement in every department and we have added a few, in my opinion, extra weapons. Florian has a lot of creativity in the final third and we have lost with Trent a lot of creativity from the back.
"Trent's crosses and picking out runners was so special -- Flo has this quality in a totally different position. He brings that creativity."
On the two wins, he added, per Liverpool's official website: "I think in both games we created a lot of chances, scored seven goals – four in the first, three in the second – so that's very pleasing to see because we definitely didn't score every chance we had.
"Especially in the second game in the first half, I think we could have scored a few more goals than we did. So that pleased me most, the ability to create the chances and even to score seven goals over two games is also good."
Liverpool are next in action on Sunday August 10 when they take on Crystal Palace in the Community Shield final. They start their Premier League campaign five days later as they welcome Bournemouth to Anfield.