Liverpool are in limbo right now.
- Published before Liverpool's 2-1 defeat at Chelsea
On one hand, this was inevitable.
The Premier League champions did a lot of business during the summer transfer window, bringing in a pair of new full-backs in
Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez, and revamping their entire attack with the signings of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike. They also added Giorgi Mamardashvili and Giovanni Leoni.
But as Arne Slot keeps pointing out, they also lost players.
Darwin Nunez joined Al Hilal, Luis Diaz was sold to Bayern Munich, Harvey Elliott moved to Aston Villa, Jarell Quansah was signed by Bayer Leverkusen, Caoimhin Kelleher finally got his move away from Liverpool and Trent Alexander-Arnold left on a free transfer to become the latest Galatico in the Spanish capital. There was also the tragic loss of Diogo Jota.
Usually, it’s a case of one or two signings and one or two departures. Liverpool signed seven first teamers while seven no longer play for the club.
A 14-player turnover is difficult to navigate. Not only do you have to bed in a number of players, every single player at the club needs to create new partnerships and understandings.
It isn’t the ideal environment for £100million signings to settle, let alone flourish. But that is what Wirtz was expected to do.
The No7, because of his price-tag and reputation, was expected to have an immediate impact on this Liverpool team. Context is overlooked and ignored when assessing his first few months at Anfield.
Some are already calling for him to be dropped with the former Bayer Leverkusen man looking out of place in the Liverpool team. But he’s not the only one. With Slot trying to bed in new players while simultaneously trialling a new system, there was bound to be teething problems.
He’s not the only one struggling for form.
During the latest episode of Monday Night Football, Jamie Carragher made a valid point during a feature section on the Germany international.
“He hasn’t been great for Liverpool so far but also I don’t think Liverpool have been great for him so far. Obviously, they’ve got to come together and make it work as best as they possibly can.”
And this is kind of the issue right now. The Reds aren’t playing to Wirtz’s strengths.
He’s being compared to his performances last season in the Bundesliga while playing a completely different role. His position has changed but expectations haven’t been altered, tweaked or modified.
Wirtz was ball-dominant for Leverkusen, averaging 87 touches per 90 in the Bundesliga. So far this season, he’s averaging 63 per 90. And these touches are coming in different areas of the pitch too.
While in Germany, the versatile attacker, more often than not, played in two behind an attacker. He was on the left of this two and could occupy wider areas but, generally speaking, he liked to tuck inside and influence things from there.
For Liverpool, he replaced Dominik Szoboszlai as the team’s attacking midfielder. He’s the No10. The expectation was he’d be scoring, assisting and pulling the strings.
The reality though is he’s dropping deep to pick up possession and acting almost as the free man a lot of the time, moving across the width of the pitch to keep things ticking over.
He’s not really been a final phase player for the Reds.
There have been moments but these have been few and far between what everyone had pictured when he moved to Anfield. What hasn’t helped is the fact Arne Slot keeps changing things. The team isn’t settled and Wirtz’s role has been tweaked a few times over recent matches.
He’s had stints on the left, stints providing ammo for Ektike, stints behind Isak and no real chance to forge some familiarity with the midfield due to injuries to Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones.
The Liverpool No7 is a world class playmaker, but, like every other player, he needs continuity. He needs a settled home in Slot’s XI and only then will he be able to potentially live up to the price-tag, the hype and the expectations.
Even while he’s still finding his feet though, he’s still managing to do enough to catch the eye. Just without the goals or assists, he’s never going to truly get the credit for it.
It won’t even be acknowledged.
Against Galatasaray, the 33-cap international was responsible for 51% of Liverpool’s expected goals haul (xG), with an expected assists (xA) total of 0.55 and an xG total of 0.37.
He was trying to make something happen. He carved out the team’s two biggest chances, playing in Isak with a ball over the top and finding Conor Bradley with an exceptional cross into the penalty area.
The 22-year-old put in his best performance in red against Atletico in the Champions League, creating five chances and finishing with an xA total of 0.75.
He could’ve had an assist in both of those games and if a teammate had managed to convert, perhaps the narrative would be different now.
For now, he’s trying to find his feet in a team trying to carve out a new identity and it isn’t proving to be easy.
This adversity should see him grow as a player though and once Slot settles on a style and a system, and Wirtz has a settled home, things will look completely different.
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