Florian Wirtz has performed a few different roles in his short Liverpool career so far as Arne Slot tries to get the best out of him.
The German attacking-midfielder hasn’t exactly had the expected statistical impact as a Red so far. He has one assist and zero goals in three official games, as well as seven chances created and zero take-ons completed.
It’s not the return one would imagine after Liverpool spent over £100 million pounds to snatch him from Bayer Leverkusen. Still, he’s been way more impactful than numbers – at least traditional ones – would lead you to believe.
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Arne Slot’s plan for Florian Wirtz
Florian Wirtz was deployed mainly in central areas during the pre-season friendlies. Arne Slot had him playing like an old-fashioned number 10, with Mo Salah on the right and Cody Gakpo on the left.
However, that changed dramatically in the Community Shield. He was joining Salah and especially Gakpo on the wings to create overloads and combinations with them and the full-backs. That is also how he used to play most of the time at Leverkusen under Xabi Alonso’s typical 3-4-2-1.
Now though, Slot seems to have shifted Wirtz’s focus back to central areas. While it has limited him in some ways for being a more congested zone, which explains the lack of completions and even attempts of take-ons, it has allowed him to be highly impactful for the team around him.
The 22-year-old still has freedom to roam between the lines and position himself behind the opposing centre-midfielders. Sometimes he even goes wide and plays a few passes, but it’s just much less frequent. The idea is to get him to be active on the ball in the most dangerous zones – which, naturally, are down the middle.
In fact, out of all attacking midfielders, wingers and forwards in the Premier League this season, Wirtz ranks first in overall touches in the central corridor, considering the whole length of the pitch (45). That is probably the only stat Arne Slot cares about in regards to him.
Quick connections
Wirtz has also been responsible for adding even more pace to an already very quick attacking line. He rarely takes more than two seconds to release the ball after receiving.
Manually watching all of his 67 passes from open play that were caught on camera, in 49 of them he took two or less touches (73%). A lot of them were first-time passes too, giving the Reds’ sequences more rythm.
He’s always looking to quickly spray the ball out to the wings or goalwards. His favourite recipients from open play, other than Dominik Szoboszlai (9 passes), have been Ekitike (8 passes), Salah and Gakpo (6 passes each).
Creating without the ball
Arne Slot has really been getting Liverpool to try and get the ball in central areas near the goal with momentum towards goal. The best example is Ekitike’s goal against Bournemouth on opening day.
Wirtz is the key for this, because he is the one who creates these spaces for others to attack. He does a lot of what Americans like to call ‘banana routes’. It’s basically perform curved runs off the ball starting in the middle of the pitch and going wide.
He also bumps into centre-backs to keep them busy or runs behind the last line of defence to get other teammates free to shoot, which worked both against the Cherries and Newcastle.
It’s fair to argue that this is not enough considering the hefty transfer fee and what he’s shown in Germany. However, it’s important to have in mind that not only is he getting used to Liverpool, but Liverpool are also getting used to having him in the team. It’s going to take time.
Wirtz’s start to life as a Red has definitely not been a tragedy as some make it seem. One could say that two or three of Liverpool’s goals in the 2025-26 Premier League so far wouldn’t have happened without him. And that’s all without scoring or assisting – when he starts picking up direct goal contributions, things can get scary.