What Julian Nagelsmann has got WRONG about Florian Wirtz

Julian Nagelsmann has leapt to the defence of Florian Wirtz.

The Germany national team manager was asked about the playmaker’s lack of impact since joining Liverpool in a £116m deal over the summer.

The 22-year-old was supposed to be the new flagship attacker for Arne Slot but it’s not worked out like that.

After 11 Premier League games we have reached the November international window without a goal contribution from the former Bayer Leverkusen star.

Szoboszlai usurps Wirtz at No10

Slot reportedly made a pledge to utilise Wirtz as his No10 - a decision that did not pay off.

Dominik Szoboszlai was initially shoehorned into the team - always maintaining his performance levels - and now Slot is searching for a role for Wirtz after restoring the Hungary captain to the middle.

The Dutchman has tried his attacking trump card at false nine, wide left and even wide right in recent weeks - but no formula he has come up with has led to a breakthrough.

This isn’t any old player we are talking about. The Germany international is the NINTH most expensive footballer of all-time. He arrived with a big reputation.

While Liverpool await his best form, his international manager has suggested the fault for his lack of impact lies elsewhere.

Nagelsmann blames Liverpool's attackers for Wirtz woes

"The overall situation isn't making things easy for Flo, to be honest. The whole club isn't as stable this year as it was last year," he said according to Traunsteiner Tagblatt.

"Maybe someone should just put the chances he creates into the net. That would be an idea. Because he's not exactly lacking in front of goal. It's just that they somehow don't like putting those chances away. That's also part of the truth.”

I’m sorry Mr Nagelsmann but that statement just doesn’t stack up. Yes Wirtz has created 16 chances in his Premier League career thus far. But he’s got an expected assists total of only 1.1.

The top three in the league right now on that metric are Jeremy Doku (3.7), Jack Grealish (3.2) and Wirtz’s left-wing Liverpool rival Cody Gakpo (2.9).

Nine Liverpool players have registered an assist this season and Wirtz isn't one of them.

This issue will define Slot's tenure

Based on those numbers Wirtz is capable of creating quantities of chances but not necessarily quality chances.

There are a lot of things to pick apart about this Liverpool team right now and Wirtz is just one of them. But there is little point pointing the finger at others when the statistics don’t really bear things out.

Wirtz isn’t as good as Szoboszlai in the No10 position and picks the ball up too deep to cause danger when he’s put somewhere else.

This is perhaps the big issue which will define Slot’s tenure.

He made a pitch to the playmaker over the summer that his future ambitions were best served by the Liverpool head coach’s blueprint.

There has been zero evidence of any kind of plan so far. This is not intended to run down Wirtz by the way; he is a very good attacking player whose output deserves to be far higher than it is.

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