Liverpool spent a lot of money to sign Florian Wirths in the summer, but he failed to make an impact and manager Arsene Wenger decided to use the German playmaker.
Manager Arsene Wenger claims Liverpool have “destroyed the midfield” by using Florian Wirths as a number 10, and the German’s struggles have been well-documented since he made a British record summer transfer.
The Reds spent £116 million to sign the playmaker from Bayer Leverkusen and his stock was very high. This amount was the highest paid by an English team until Liverpool surpassed themselves by signing Alexander Isak a few weeks later.
Despite Wirtz’s impressive reputation, he has so far failed to deliver. The 22-year-old, who has been used as the team’s chief playmaker, is yet to score or assist in 10 Premier League games. Arne Slott has been accused of throwing the team out of balance with a summer of waste amid Liverpool’s poor performance.
Wirtz was eventually played in a wider role as the Reds beat Real Madrid on Tuesday night, but Wenger insists that telling Wirtz to play as a number 10 was a huge mistake, which ended up having a negative impact on the midfield dynamics.
“Liverpool is an interesting example. When Wirtz had to choose between going to Bayern Munich and Liverpool, he said to Liverpool: “If I want to play as number 10, I will come to you. I don’t want to play wide,” he told beIN SPORTS before the match against Real. “Liverpool wanted to sign him and they said OK.”
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“They started him and destroyed the midfield – it was (Ryan) Grabenbirch, (Alexis) Mac Allister and (Dominik) Szoboszlei. To play against Wirths, they took Szoboszlei out. What did they do against Aston Villa? They’re back to the midfield of last year. And tonight they play Wirths and I’m sure Wirths will play wide.”
“The manager said: ‘If you want to play again, you have to play wide, because you don’t want to disrupt the midfield.’ It will be interesting to see tonight. Wirtz is back in the team, but he certainly has to play as he did when he played for Leverkusen.”
In order to get Wirtz into the starting lineup, Szoboszlai had to shift to right-back, where he made a good impression, but is ultimately just a makeshift player in that position. Liverpool just won back-to-back games for the first time in late September, defeating Real and Aston Villa.
Their team has many quality players and many problems. Isak, who signed a record contract, will cost £125m and is now in competition with Hugo Ekitike. The Frenchman has been the most successful of Liverpool’s summer signings, costing him £79m, but he and Isak are both most effective as No.9s.
The Swede is currently out injured, with Ekitike leading the way, but is expected to return this weekend when discussions are likely to resume.
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