28 Sep 2025 10:33:55
People having a go at Wirtz is wrong . he needs to play more games to get used to everything, you can see what he's got in his locker . for me he need to play top of the midfield 3 . Grav n Slob would be my other 2 starters . Macallister is a great player but he's completely off it this year . not sure if he's fit or something else .
28 Sep 2025 10:57:11
No! We should write off a £116m signing cos he hasn't played well in the first few games! Banish him to the Carabao Cup! If we just wanted someone to take up good positions between the lines, we could get Mr Bean to do it, couldn't we?
/ s
I know I'm going to get pelters for this, but this is what I see: He was mentally 2 yards ahead of most of the team with his little round the corner flicks and short passes in the first couple of games. But he's starting to gel with the team now and those little passes aren't going astray anymore. He's not a winger, so it was not a great idea to play him there, and give him license to roam, against Palace. He was basically everywhere but left wing. He needs to get a goal or an assist and he'll kick on and be fine.
28 Sep 2025 11:02:39
Florian Wirtz is an unbelievable footballer. But let’s call a spade a spade. He’s been Gash so far
You can’t be Slow on the ball in this league, we’ve said it for years and years with Curtis Jones.
I think he’ll be great, I’ve no worries at all with Wirtz. But he’s not alone on players who need to improve. Him, Salah, Gakpo, Mac, Kerkez, Ibou, Frimpong, Bradley. Everyone of them are 3/ 4 levels below where Liverpool need them to be.
28 Sep 2025 11:10:56
I don't doubt his ability for one second but I don't really see what our plan is for him. The left side looks so crowded with Isak and kerkez all crammed up there and Mac allister is the go to option on the left side of midfield.
He's constantly moving around trying to get on the ball but we don't seem to have a plan for where the optimal spots are for him to get on the ball, the way we always got mo on the ball where he wanted to last year. When he does get the ball deep he has no option other than hold off the pressure and lay it off to somebody else before roaming about again.
I understand that in our team he isn't the alpha that everything goes through the way it was at Bayer, but that should make life easier for him rather than harder.
I think it has nothing to do with his ability but more to do with how we can adjust tactically to get the best out of his skills in the most efficient way, rather than having him to do so much of what he is decent at (pressing, ball retention in deep areas) and so little of what he is elite at.
28 Sep 2025 11:14:40
I don't understand the point of breaking the Premier League transfer record if you're not going to play him in his best position especially when you want him to form a connection with the player who broke that record.
28 Sep 2025 11:23:12
I worry more about the team’s intensity. We are simply not at it. Everything is slow and played in front of 10 opposing players. Not sure if it’s a ploy by Slot to save energy for the second half of the season but we need a bit more heavy metal type football it just way to slow at the moment. Wirtz will definitely come good just give him time
Up the pool.
28 Sep 2025 11:46:47
He’s come out a said the pressing he has to do and speed of the league is taking him time to get used to, just give him time maybe on the left for a bit.
28 Sep 2025 11:46:50
I think Wirtz takes the full season to adapt to new team, new country, new league.
There is a reason we haven't really recruited a classic #10 into Klopp's time and until Wirtz under Slot.
Klopp/ Slot system doesn't typically suit a #10 because essentially all the midfielders need to play box to box. Coutinho was identical and his best performances under Klopp were when he came off the Left Wing.
But, the difference is that Wirtz does have the engine to play box to box. but he needs time to adapt to the pace and physical demands of the league.
It will just take time and he will get better. It is what it is for me and more than prepared to be patient with him.
We're paying another guy in the team almost half a million every week, so would like to think Wirtz has some other, more established players in the team to carry the team while he gets up to speed.
28 Sep 2025 12:02:00
It's just the way he plays, coulred, I think we've got to stop clamouring for heavy metal football because Slot won't give us that, he takes calculated risks rather than taking the risky option 9 times out of 10 ala Jurgen. Also I'm not sure if the team lacks intensity, it's just intensity of a different sort, mental intensity to stay switched on from first second to last to capitalise on the opposition tiring or making a mistake.
The problem has to do with us shifting gears from slow to fast, which often takes place when we create an exploit in the opposition shape, the goal against Rio being a classic example- Ibou stands on the ball, defenders get pulled forward ever so slightly, we execute a series of passes at lightning speed, Salah delivers a killer ball across the box where defenders were supposed to have been and we score. I think Ed001 has it spot on, we are winning games through a process of attrition, wearing teams down until they make a mistake. But I don't think it's sustainable winning games by being reliant on opposition mistakes.
Unlike a team like Villa or Brighton under de Zerbi, we know how to create chances and we have the quality and intelligence to create chances without having to rely on the other team pressing us to create space. The question is when Slot decides to not waste so much time on our predominant build up tactic and try something else when we figure out it isn't working. He always does in the second half, but by then it might already be too late.
We also look so much slower in transition this year, everything is not as clockwork as it was last year, which is understandable given all the new players. Our transitional game was so instinctive last year.
I'm hoping that we start to adopt a more proactive approach towards games in the near future, but who's to say that we don't go on a long winning run doing something akin to what won us the first 5 games, but without conceding unlucky goals and making more of the chances we create?
What gave me hope from yesterday's game was how we had proof again of how Slot knows exactly where the game state is going and what he needs to do to change it. His subs were also absolutely correct once he realised Palace were trying to hold on to a result and we needed as much attacking impetus as possible. If he was sitting there clueless how to switch things up and trying something that clearly doesn't work, like Amorim, then I would be worried. Yes Slot made a mistake setting the team up like that and playing the way we did in the first half, but the second half I think we generally played well and should have scored at least one more than we did.
28 Sep 2025 12:07:41
Goal against Newcastle from Rio, I meant.
28 Sep 2025 12:29:22
We are clearly still adjusting to what was a fair bit of change over the summer. Although, I think it was Slot who got it badly wrong yesterday in that first half and then those final set of subs which ended up killing our momentum.
I will repeat, over the last 10 years (bar 22/ 23), we tend to find our playing rhythm after the 2nd international break. If you look at the performances over the last two seasons, while we racked up the points, the performances were dysfunctional to average at best (United at OT excluded) .
The mains questions Slot needs to figure out are 1) what is going on with Konate, 2) what is up with Macca and 3) why is Szobo our best right back?
I really don't think Wirtz is the problem right now.
It will get better. Hopefully starting on Tuesday.
28 Sep 2025 12:59:25
Sorry, anyone dropping any type of slander on Wirtz is just being lazy. Vs Palace in isolation, he was set up to fail and Slot should hold the L on that one, IMO. How is it possible that you play him on the left side of the attack knowing full well you are going against speed demons like Munoz and Sarr epecially when we lose the ball in transition? You are literally telling Palace that we aren't scared of you in transition and they made us pay every single time cos Wirtz ain't tracking back to keep up with those guys hence, the 3 v 2's we were getting. So by doing that, we were playing to Palace's strengths on both wings, which is speed on the counter with nothing to challenge that.
Cos with Salah not tracking back and with Pino and Mitchell bombing forward on our right, the overloads on that side were are off the charts, as well. For me, that was NOT a game for experimenting Wirtz on the left. We needed our best athletes on the wings (like Gakpo to counter their pace on the left) to counter them and Slot messed that up by putting Wirtz on the left, amongst the other issues we had vs Palace like the slack, lackadaisical and sluggish approach we had going in. Just my opinion.
28 Sep 2025 14:04:07
Faith
How can you give Wirtz a full season to get used to new players, new league, new country etc when another new player Ekitke has started like a house on fire? I think that’s a kop out mate if I’m honest.
28 Sep 2025 14:45:04
I think the problem last night was that Wirtz wasn't even playing left wing in the first half. He wasn't taking up wide positions a lot of the time and was allowed to drift everywhere on the pitch. People on here don't seem to like Cody much these days but Cody has a very defined position when we are in or out of possession- out of possession he drops into midfield rather than pressing with the front line so we don't get overloaded there, and with his height, pace and strength he is a big asset to us off the ball. Wirtz wasn't given that instruction yesterday.
As you say, Oli, Slot set the team up without thinking about the ramifications if they broke on us and Wirtz wasn't in a position to help the team off the ball. It didn't work with us on the ball either, because Wirtz would so often occupy the same positions that he would anyway if we started him as a 10. Once Cody came on and Wirtz went into the 10 we looked infinitely better.
I'm not saying that Wirtz can't start on the left, he loves the left hand side of the pitch and does his best work in the left half space. But he can't start on the left and not have defined responsibilities, at least on the defensive side of things.
I appreciate that Flo needs freedom to express himself and play his best, but it looks like Slot hasn't really thought about how to really accommodate that in the team structure properly, and how the rest of the team might have to adjust their off the ball responsibilities to make sure we aren't caught short when we lose the ball in transition.