The Germany international shone in the midweek Champions League win over Real Madrid.
Arne Slot (left) is prepared to give more freedom to Florian Wirtz (PA)open image in gallery
Arne Slot (left) is prepared to give more freedom to Florian Wirtz (PA) (PA Wire)
Your support helps us to tell the story
Support Now
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot believes the key to getting the best out of Florian Wirtz is by giving him freedom in the final third.
The Germany international had his best game since his £100million summer move from Bayer Leverkusen coming inside from a wide-left position in Tuesday’s Champions League win over Real Madrid.
Having been primarily played through the middle, the 22-year-old had defensive responsibilities on the left but was otherwise allowed to roam and assume positions where he could find the most space and be effective.
Slot does not want to pigeon-hole the playmaker as a left-sided attacker as he believes that will not play to his strengths.
“Florian can play in more than only one position. He can play off the left, which he did almost all the time in Leverkusen when Xabi Alonso came and introduced his 3-4-3 system, and before he played as a 10 in a 4-3-3,” said Slot.
“It is more about getting him positions where he is good, rather than be focused on ‘Is he a 10, is he an 11, is he an eight?’.
“We would like to have him in and around the 18-yard box, centrally or a bit more off the left or bit more off the right for him to create the amount of chances he has already created for us.”
Sunday’s trip to Manchester City presents another tough task and Wirtz could find himself in a different role against Pep Guardiola’s side, as last season at the Etihad Slot deployed twin number 10s – on that occasion Dominik Szoboszlai and Curtis Jones – in a 2-0 victory.
But the Reds boss believes the key to maintaining the momentum from back-to-back victories for the first time since September is consistency.
“For me, we have reached that level of performance (against Madrid) in other games as well when the playing style of the opponent was compared to that,” said Slot.
“We always knew we were able to do so. It was helpful to us the other team did what I expected because in eight out of 10 games this season we have faced a different playing style than these teams played before.
“Although there is still a lot of work to be done from the players to get a result like that.
“What we can expect from City is the playing style we always see, but the difficult thing is they are very good at it and have very good players so that makes that challenge big again.”
Heading into the weekend, City and Liverpool are the immediate challengers to leaders Arsenal, six and seven points behind, but Slot is not even thinking about the game in the context of the title race.
“I only focus on ourselves,” he said. “We have lost a few games, much more than we usually do, and now we have won two so our focus is on getting consistent, improving and getting players fit and then we will see where that will lead to.
“But at this moment in time definitely not the only focus we have is the league table.”