Liverpool have FINALLY found their €100m striker

The most obvious role for Florian Wirtz in this Liverpool team is on the left side of the attack.

The 22-year-old played there primarily for Bayer Leverkusen, albeit in a different formation. Under Xabi Alonso, the 2023/24 Bundesliga champions played a 3-4-2-1 shape with Wirtz on the left of the two behind the striker.

He was given the freedom to drift into wide areas but also operate fairly centrally, safe in the knowledge that Alejandro Grimaldo would keep the width as a marauding wing-back.

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Liverpool don’t have an identical position in their team. But if you had to position the German maestro somewhere in the team that allowed him a bit of freedom, it’d be on the left side of the attack. The central players do a lot of the running. Dominik Szoboszlai put in a shift as an attacking midfielder, doing a lot of the defensive work for Mohamed Salah.

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What went under the radar a little was how much of a shift the centre-forward also put in. Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz all did the hard yards with Szoboszlai when deployed as the striker. And this, by default, alleviated some of the burden on the left-sided attacker.

With Milos Kerkez likely to be added to the squad, the left-sided attacker is in a comfortable position. The Hungary international can do a lot of the running on the outside while the striker covers central areas.

It doesn’t mean Wirtz won’t have to do defensive work, it is part of his appeal, but it frees him up to play his natural game.

This made the most sense with the links to a new centre-forward. Why else would you spend north of £60million on a striker if you just wanted them to sit on the bench while Wirtz and Szoboszlai spearheaded the attack?

Szoboszlai, as far as I’m concerned, is a key part of Slot’s XI.

Yes, people want more goals and assists from him but we don’t win the title without his graft in that role. I’m not entirely sure he’s cut out for a deeper role either. He may have scored against Brighton but he struggled off the ball. He’s also got a bit of a trampoline first touch, which is a problem in that part of the pitch. If you look at Curtis Jones, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch, they’re all assured with the ball. They bring calm to proceedings. They suit the deeper, double pivot role much more than Szoboszlai does.

If we drop the No8 back, we’re basically highlighting his weaknesses and hiding his strengths. There’s something else to consider too. Dropping him means you’re making changes to the spine of a title winning team. Unnecessary changes at that. Whereas if you’re able to keep Alisson, Virgil Van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Szoboszlai in their roles, you have a good base to retain the title.

Moving Szoboszlai in a deeper role means you’re starting the new season with two new central players, Wirtz and a forward, spearheading the press. It is a gamble.

It has to be Szoboszlai and one other leading the line for the Reds.

The one other could well be Wirtz.

He could, after all, be the Diogo Jota replacement. There’s a world in which he’s the replacement for Diaz the false-9 rather than Diaz the left-winger.

Things need to happen for this to come to fruition though. Firstly, the centre-forward Liverpool bring in needs to be a back-up rather than a bonafide star. You can’t spend £60million or more on a Plan B, can you? The Reds also need to either keep both Diaz and Cody Gakpo, or replace whichever of them is sold.

With that in mind, the links to Rafael Leao now make a little more sense.

Liverpool won the league essentially playing with a false-9.

Wirtz has the traits needed to be a world class false-9. He’s the heir to Roberto Firmino, if we want him to be. And against Man City last season, away at the Etihad, the Reds went with dual false-9s.

You can see the shape above.

Liverpool had Salah and Diaz holding the width. Then Szoboszlai and Jones played as a two-man attack, backed up by Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch. On paper, it was a 2-4-4 shape. Liverpool dominated central areas with their No8 and No17 dropping back into midfield when required. There was a fluidity to the team that just worked.

And we’ve seen it a few times this season. Against Crystal Palace on the final day of the season, it was a 2-4-4 system with the ball, as shown in the average touch map courtesy of WhoScored.

Why couldn’t Wirtz slot into the Diaz role here?

He wouldn’t need to be prolific. Think Roberto Firmino under Jurgen Klopp. If he chips in with 20 goal involvements in the Premier League, he’s done his job for the team in that role. The potential is there for him to do just that. He finished with 22 goal involvements in the Bundesliga last term and his underlying numbers were just as impressive. The Germany international had an Expected Goals total of 9.4 (from an average of 2.98 shots per 90) and an Expected Assists total of 9.44.

There’s no reason that Wirtz couldn’t replicate those numbers if given the environment and the platform to do so.

If Liverpool play something similar to their 2016/17 style, when Jurgen Klopp had Gini Wijnaldum and Adam Lallana operating as goalscoring No8s in midfield, we could see the goals spread across the team.

READ MORE: Florian Wirtz deal confirms Liverpool have finally fixed Zubimendi mistake

That season, Philippe Coutinho and Sadio Mane scored 13 goals each. Roberto Firmino chipped in with 11, Lallana scored eight and Wijnaldum netted six times. If Slot can get Salah and the left-sided forward, Gakpo for now, scoring 15+ each, Wirtz can chip in with 10 and Mac Allister and Szoboszlai can split 15 between them, Liverpool have the foundations for a title challenge.

Wirtz could well be the centre-forward Liverpool have been searching for.