Kodi Gakpo’s goal clinched a much-needed victory for Liverpool in Germany, but it was Florian Wirtz who provided the assist that caught the attention of his teammates. It was Wirtz’s first assist in more than two months and a winning moment. Just like the London bus, another assist soon followed, this time for Dominik Szoboschlai, who set up the score from 20 yards to go, capping off a 5-1 Champions League win against Eintracht Frankfurt.
Wertz was just relieved to have made such a huge contribution, allaying some of the criticism he has faced since his £116m move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer. Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson praised Wirtz’s performance, saying: “I thought he was outstanding and great. I thought he developed, especially in the second half, and got into the game.”
“The players around him helped him a lot. Curtis Jones was outstanding and I think our three midfielders gave the team momentum and helped us keep the ball. Flo has been really good since he’s been here.”
“People focus on the number of goals and assists, but it’s sometimes unfair because he creates so many chances and on Wednesday some of the chances he created ended in assists. Hopefully he can get a lot out of this performance.”
Robertson is right to highlight the huge chances created by Wertz, which Liverpool were unable to capitalize on. No Premier League player has created more chances across all competitions this season, with the German international also sitting at the top of the table for open play chances and expected assists.
He also leads the league in chances created per 90 minutes among players who have logged at least 200 minutes this season. Robertson, making his third start of the season ahead of Milos Kerkes, teed up Hugo Ekitike to equalize with his former club and ease Liverpool’s nerves following Rasmus Christensen’s opener in Frankfurt, and now boasts a goal and an assist in the Champions League.
Headers from centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate from corners had decisively shifted the game in the visitors’ favor before the interval, with Frankfurt manager Dino Topmoller subsequently admitting his team had failed to cope with Liverpool’s set-piece threat, with Reds manager Arne Slott calling for reinforcements from his side.
“We’re always working on that, every team is doing that right now,” Robertson said. “You could see that was a big part of the game. We conceded some set-pieces, which was very disappointing and we have to improve on that and probably didn’t score as many goals as we should have done so far.
“Thankfully, it worked. The delivery was spot-on, the block was spot-on, and the runners were spot-on. If you get those three things right, you have a great chance to score. We had two big players in the important moments and we were able to take a 3-1 lead.”
Captain Virgil van Dijk convened an impromptu meeting with the squad on Monday to address the issue as the reshuffled Reds ended a four-game losing streak with victory in Germany. “After the Manchester United game, the message from the group leaders was ‘don’t panic’,” Robertson revealed.
“Rather, it was, ‘As long as we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, stay focused, and keep coming together as a group, everything will turn around.’ If you look left and right, the quality of our team is incredibly high, and if we can prove that every day, we’ll be successful.”
“We talk all the time in the locker room. Even when we were winning five games in a row, we talk. So whether it’s a small group or a big group, that’s the norm after games.”
“When you go up 3-1[in Frankfurt]you can see the players starting to enjoy themselves and that’s what you want. People playing with smiles, people enjoying playing for this club, people scoring goals, people assisting goals.
“Winning 5-1 in the Champions League is very rare, it doesn’t happen very often. We have to enjoy nights like this and hopefully a lot of the players can get a lot out of it. But this is just one win and we have a lot of work to do. We need to go on a winning streak, not a losing streak.”
Liverpool travel to Brentford on Saturday looking to end a three-game losing streak in the Premier League and inject fresh momentum into their title bid.
However, Reds vice-captain Robertson resisted the temptation to contact former captain Jordan Henderson before the reunion.
“I don’t think he’d text me even if I tried, so I’ll save that for after the game,” he said. “Hendo is an absolute legend at our club for what he did for us in our dressing room and for the trophies he lifted.
“It’s good to see him, but I know he’ll be fighting like always. Brentford are a tough team, so our midfield will give him a tough fight, as will all of our players. If we win, I hope we can have a good catch-up with him after the game.”
