Liverpool have FINALLY found Florian Wirtz's best position

Liverpool have finally found Florian Wirtz's best position in Arne Slot's tactical set-up.

The German has 'struggled' this season, finding it difficult to make a material impact for Liverpool with goals and assists. He eventually broke his deadlock in the Champions League against Eintracht Frankfurt with two assists coming his way, although we've since been left with a problem to solve.

After that match, he struggled against Brentford and was only brought on for 13 minutes as a substitute in Aston Villa's visit to Anfield. He was left at home for the Crystal Palace game.

But against Real Madrid, he was given the all-clear to start the match, a bold call given how successful Slot's set-up had been against Villa. It was a masterstroke, however, and Liverpool shouldn't look back if they're looking to be a threat moving forward. He was phenomenal.

Wirtz needs to play at left-wing

In order to facilitate Wirtz in the side, without disrupting the midfield trio of Dominik Szoboszlai, Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, we saw Cody Gakpo benched from his favoured left-wing role.

To call the German a left-winger isn't quite accurate, he was more given the freedom to pop up in areas where he was needed. Be that dropping into midfield, linking up with Hugo Ekitike, or helping out Mohamed Salah on the right-hand side. You name it, Wirtz was there. He was everywhere last night.

Inside the opening half, he created five chances - each one incremental in Liverpool finding ways to challenge Thibaut Courtois. No goals were scored, but you felt the team were a constant threat.

The only goal in the contest came from Mac Allister getting on the end of one of Szoboszlai's whipped deliveries into the box, and it capped off a superb night for the Reds, but Wirtz's role in that shouldn't be understated because he didn't get a goal contribution, it was a remarkable performance.

In fact, he's been electric in each of the four Champions League games he's played this season - creating a record 16 chances in those appearances, which is a Liverpool record per Michael Reid.

Across the 88 minutes he featured in, the 22-year-old created a big chance - alongside his five key passes - he had two successful dribbles, he won his only tackle and four of his eight duels, while making six recoveries in amongst it all. To reiterate a comment I made earlier, he was everywhere.

Of course, he'll have to contend with Gakpo and Rio Ngumoha at left-wing if Slot decides to deploy him there again in future, and he might return to midfield at some point, but the evidence is clear.

Liverpool had 2.58xg to Real Madrid's 0.45xg. It was four big chances to one. 17 shots to eight and nine shots on target to two shots on target. The Reds were superior in every facet and Wirtz more than played his part in that.

With that performance in mind, it's more than criminal to know that Liverpool had lost six of their last in seven games at one point this season. Now the team is starting to get back to form, with their collective performances delivering well-earns wins for the first time this season, we have to keep the standards high moving forward.

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