Liverpool look set to break the bank this summer after already signing Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen, as they take aim at the German outfit once more for Florian Wirtz.
Arne Slot became the first Premier League manager in history to win nine of his first ten games incharge, guiding Liverpool to their 20th league title in his debut season.
After achieving 84 points in the 2024/25 campaign, winning 25 times, drawing nine and losing just four times, Slot will be looking to evolve his side next season in order to see off any competition from other clubs.
The average points by the champions across the Premier League era stands at 87.8, which would suggest Slot’s side will need to improve upon their 84 point tally next season in order to retain their crown.
But how could Slot use his new signings to evolve on his tactics from last season?
The first way Slot could look to implement Florian Wirtz at Liverpool is as a left-sided number eight, allowing him to drop deeper in build up and use his passing quality to help the team progress play.
With Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving the club this summer, one of the main attributes Slot’s side will be missing next season is passing range in the first phase.
Trent averaged 11.32 long passes attempted per 90 last season, completing 4.77 of those long passes per 90, the most of any Liverpool player in those two metrics. He also averaged 8.50 progressive passes per 90 with 1.74 key passes per 90.
Therefore, Slot will be looking at address that progressive passing in another way this season, which is where Wirtz could be effective.
The 22-year-old averaged 6.62 progressive passes per 90, making 2.37 key passes per 90, but falling short in long passes in comparison to Trent with just 1.83 attempted and 1.3 completed per 90.
When looking at Wirtz’s touchmap against Augsburg last season, 18 of his 63 touches were from inside his own half, drifting from attacking midfield positions into the first phase of build up to help Leverkusen progress play.
With Trent leaving the club, Liverpool will need a player who can unlock stubborn defensive units with their passing ability, something Wirtz has the capability to do from all areas of the pitch.
Wirtz managed 10 goals and 13 assists last season in the Bundesliga, but Slot will have to make a decision on whether he wants the German closer to the box or roaming to dictate the game.
Slot could go for a different route to bring Wirtz into his Liverpool team, deploying the 22-year-old from the left in a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3.
Towards the back end of the 2024/25 season, we began to see Slot experiment with pushing both of his fullbacks higher, dropping one of his midfielders alongside Van Dijk and Konate in build up and creating a 3-2-5 shape on the ball.
This would allow both Wirtz and Salah to operate more centrally when the fullbacks push forwards to provide width, which would explain the decisions to acquire Frimpong and potentially Kerkez.
Wirtz would therefore be able to operate in the left half space, looking to receive the ball between the lines and effect the game in the final third.
Wirtz averaged 0.65 big chances created per 90 for Leverkusen last season, creating 2.18 chances per 90 and completing 3.13 of his 6.15 take-ons attempted per 90.
Cody Gakpo in comparison averaged 0.51 big chances created per 90 last season, creating 1.76 chances per 90 and completing 1.44 of his 2.41 take-ons attempted per 90.
The Dutch winger had a good campaign for Liverpool, scoring 10 goals and providing five assists in 35 Premier League appearances.
However, Wirtz even had better shooting metrics than Gakpo last campaign, averaging 2.98 shots per 90 to Gakpo’s 2.65, getting 1.49 on target to Gakpo’s 1.07 and having a 50% shooting accuracy compared to Gakpo’s 40.35%.
By playing Wirtz off the left, it would offer Arne Slot a different set of skills whilst still retaining strong ball striking ability on that side, which could be exactly what he has planned for his Liverpool side next season.