20 Jun 2026 21:57:38
Hi Eds, quick question, where do you think Iraola will play Wirtz?
Am watching Germany vs Ivory Coast and Wirtz started by hugging the left wing and is now in the centre and it feels like Nagelsman isn't sure where to play him.
Surely he is more affective in the middle?
Also, saw Diomande make three awful touches and then wow, skinned the defender and great cross in with left foot (and he's right-footed).
{Ed001's Note - I think he will play him across the 3, sometimes left, sometimes centre, sometimes right, depending on what he needs for that game. Iraola likes flexibility.}
20 Jun 2026 23:06:25
Germany, he's always as a left 10 and drifts outside or in the middle.
20 Jun 2026 23:10:31
Barakdee, Wirtz played on the 'left' the entire game. He floats though and ends up drifting central, deeper or even over to the right but you saw every time he eventually ended up back out on the left as his main position. It's the complete opposite to Nagelsman not knowing how to use him in fact; he knows the best way to use him is to just give him a free role. Wirtz is tactically intelligent enough to react to the game in front of him and move to the area where he can hurt the opposition. By starting him on the left though he can drift around creating overloads and leave space on that left side for Brown to burst forward and retain the width. Wirtz should've had 2 or 3 assists tonight, the clearest of which actually fell for Brown on the under lap. I hope we also just give Wirtz a free role under Iraola as Slot was far too obsessed with control that he wasted Wirtz in rigid tactics. However we make that work next year, well that's down to Iraola. Germany make it work by his starting position being from the left but Leverkusen also made it work behind a striker, off the right and even as a false 9 on occasions. As Ed says, Iraola will probably move him around and rotate the attack given we have so many options and are still looking to add more.
Iraola plays a 4-2-3-1 and in those 4 forward positions it looks like our intention is to have Wirtz, Szoboszlai, Isak, Diomande, Munoz, Rio, Ekitike, Barcola and maybe even Elliott. An absolutely obscene level of depth but a necessity if we want to play Iraola's high octane press and compete on 4 fronts. Wirtz is going to really benefit from having so many runners ahead of him next season.
21 Jun 2026 00:20:26
He'll float.
21 Jun 2026 03:52:33
Wirtz looked great for us when he started on the left and was given a free role to roam around. He popped up all around the pitch, linking play and playing passes in behind.