Florian Wirtz failed to mark his Premier League debut with a goal or an assist.
The £100million summer signing was substituted after 82 minutes in the game against Bournemouth with the scoreline reading 2-2. The Reds netted two late goals to get their title defence off to a good start.
Hugo Ekitike impressed on his first start in the English top tier, scoring and assisting. Mohamed Salah netted his customary opening day goal, the 10th of his career, adding to his long list of records.
Cody Gakpo also got on the scoresheet, meaning Wirtz was the only attacker in the Liverpool starting XI not to involve himself in a goal.
The narrative seems to be that the new No7 struggled, likely because he didn’t score, assist or produce a moment of magic.
Granted, he’s still coming to terms with the intensity of the Premier League. Arne Slot mentioned this recently, saying: "The system is different but we want to be intense, Xabi Alonso wanted to be intense. He liked to dominate possession, Xabi tried to bring him in positions we want to try to bring him in, so a lot of things are the same for him.
"But it's true he has to adjust to England, to the league, to the intensity and to his new teammates as well. But I think if you saw the games, his adjustment went quite well – better than even expected, and we already expected a lot."
So while he was caught dilly-dallying on the ball on multiple occasions throughout the game, he wasn’t the only one. There’s also a significant difference between struggling and failing to dominate a game.
Wirtz fell into the latter category rather than the former.
The reality is that the former Bayer Leverkusen maestro showed exactly why Liverpool forked out a club record fee to bring him to Anfield. He showed he possesses everything needed to be a key cog in Arne Slot’s forward line. Even players with Premier League experience look off the pace in the season opener. It takes time to get up to full speed.
But just because Wirtz wasn’t at his fluid, impactful best doesn’t mean he wasn’t good. That is what seems to be being overlooked right now.
In possession, the 22-year-old finished the game having created the joint most chances (three). He also registered the second highest expected assists (xA) total of the match (0.28), behind only Gakpo (0.44).
Wirtz, despite trying risky, progressive passes, finished with a pass success rate of 75% and was successful with 100% of his attempted long passes. The Germany international made things happen but kept things moving.
Defensively, he put in a shift too.
He made six ball recoveries, had a 100% tackle success rate. He struggled in duels, winning just three of the 10 he attempted, but he was putting himself about. You’d like to think he’d improve with a bit more game time. Even if he doesn’t, he’s still a disruptor as an attacking midfielder.
He’s not shying away from the graft and that can only be viewed as a positive.
For a bit of added context here, during Liverpool 2-0 win over Manchester City last season, a game many believe to be one of the team’s best performances of the season, Dominik Szoboszlai, playing in the same role as Wirtz did against the Cherries, won three of nine duels.
After all, losing duels is better than not being involved in duels at all.
Wirtz was good offensively. He was impactful defensively. The finest part of his showing against Bournemouth, however, was without the ball.
Only two players covered more ground than Wirtz (11km) and both of them played the full 90 minutes whereas the Liverpool No7 was replaced in the 82nd minute.
For the majority of the game, the 31-cap international topped the charts for this particular metric. He was perpetually on the move, popping up all over the pitch and impacting all phases of play. The £100m-summer signing also ranked first for most ground covered while running (8.3km).
Given how important Szoboszlai’s physicality was for the Reds last term, the fact they’ve replaced his engine with a player with a similar sort of physical profile shows the Reds aren’t going to be worse off in that department. In fact, given Wirtz’s creativity, they have upgraded that part of the team.
Yes, he didn’t score or assist. Yes, he didn’t have a highlight reel worthy moment. But he created chances, did the dirty work without the ball and never stopped running.
New imports often struggle with the physical side of things. Wirtz didn’t.
As soon as he’s up to speed with the rigours of England and able to dictate things in possession, he’s going to be one of the best players in the league.
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