Give Wirtz The Ball And Watch Him Deliver

Florian Wirtz is becoming an easy target after another quiet afternoon in the goalless draw with Fulham, and that frustrates us more than it probably should. Wirtz remains one of the most gifted players Liverpool have signed in years, and the growing narrative that he is struggling to adapt misses what is actually happening in front of him every week.

The Numbers Tell A Different Story

Strip away the frustration and look at what Wirtz is actually doing on the pitch. Few players in the Liverpool squad cover as much ground without the ball or press with as much intensity. His work rate has never been in question, even during a run of games where his end product has dipped below his own high standards. The issue is not effort. It is opportunity.

Against Fulham, Wirtz barely saw the ball in the pockets of space where he does his best work. When Liverpool did manage to find him between the lines, the difference was obvious, with one sharp pass through the middle briefly unlocking a Fulham defence that otherwise held its shape comfortably all afternoon. Moments like that should be happening far more regularly than once every ninety minutes.

The Supply Line Is The Real Issue

This is where the conversation needs to shift away from Wirtz and towards the players behind him. Dominik Szoboszlai and Ryan Gravenberch have struggled for weeks to progress the ball with any conviction, and a number ten can only influence a game if the players feeding him are brave enough to thread passes into dangerous areas rather than recycling possession sideways out of caution.

Too often against Fulham, Liverpool’s midfield chose the safe option instead of the incisive one. Passes went backwards or sideways when a forward ball into Wirtz was available, and that pattern has repeated itself often enough this season that it looks like a structural habit rather than a one off. A player of Wirtz’s quality should be receiving the ball in central attacking positions ten or more times a game, not two or three.

Wirtz Still Has Room To Improve Too

None of this means Wirtz is blameless. Even on the occasions he did receive possession in good areas against Fulham, his touch and decision making were not always at the level Liverpool need from him. He is still adapting to the pace and physicality of the Premier League, and that adjustment does not happen instantly no matter how talented a player is. Expecting immediate, consistent brilliance from any attacking midfielder in their first season in England is unrealistic, however much money was spent to bring them in.

The fair assessment sits somewhere between the two extremes currently being argued. Wirtz has not been at his best, but nor has the team done nearly enough to get the best out of him. Both things can be true at once, and treating this purely as an individual failing lets the midfield off the hook for a problem that is at least partly theirs to fix.

There is also a simple structural fix worth considering. Fulham set up specifically to deny Liverpool space centrally, and against that kind of defensive block the temptation to force passes through the middle can actually make things worse. Widening the point of attack earlier, using the full backs more aggressively to stretch play, and only then looking for Wirtz once the opposition shape has been disrupted might create more of the pockets he thrives in rather than asking him to conjure something from a crowded midfield every single time.

Patience matters here too. Wirtz arrived at Liverpool as one of the most sought after young attacking midfielders in Europe, and clubs do not spend that kind of money on reputation alone. The talent has not gone anywhere. What has been missing is the collective platform to let it show up consistently, and that is a fixable problem rather than a permanent one.

Our Take

Iraola’s task now is to find a way to connect Liverpool’s most gifted attacking player with the rest of the team more consistently. That might mean tweaking how Szoboszlai and Gravenberch operate, it might mean trusting Nyoni to offer more forward thrust from deeper, or it might simply mean giving this group more time together on the training pitch. Whatever the solution, it starts with getting Wirtz the ball in the areas where he can actually hurt teams, not with writing off a player who has barely had a fair chance to show what he can do.