Florian Wirtz - Welcome to LFC

[Doc_Piptorious]

Would Salah be described as an inverted winger on the right side?

Most of the time he is exactly that


Cutting infield to get onto his stronger foot.

[Mark79]

It’s what I think as well but he has said that he sees himself as a 10 and Slot said he’d be our 10. I think Szozbo brings the most energy to the midfield so he is still needed, we could form a box with Grav and Mac + Wirtz and Szozbo ahead and the width coming from Kerkez and Bradley/Frimpong

I don’t see anyway for us to move to a back 3, Slot has never used it as a starting formation and he openly said one of the reasons he came was because his set up was similar to Klopp. There are times when we have to chase a result or when in possession that we go to a back 3 but never as a “from the start” way

Yep, still very much a 10, just orientated more to the left, which is what he's used to with Leverkusen and Germany

[memzey]

One of the things I'm concerned about is the potential for destabilization if we start Wirtz in the 10 role instead of Dom. No doubt he can bring some extra creativity and goal threat but what about all the running Dom does for Salah? I know Wirtz is stellar at winning the ball back in the final third but the work Dom does is something a bit different and I don't expect Wirtz to offer the same. If he plays on the left, then he's reinforcing our strongest position, which will mean one or two first team quality players missing out. He's a good player but we need a pattern of play that makes us better with him, rather than just having a better player on the pitch.

[RedReet]

One of the things I'm concerned about is the potential for destabilization if we start Wirtz in the 10 role instead of Dom. No doubt he can bring some extra creativity and goal threat but what about all the running Dom does for Salah? I know Wirtz is stellar at winning the ball back in the final third but the work Dom does is something a bit different and I don't expect Wirtz to offer the same. If he plays on the left, then he's reinforcing our strongest position, which will mean one or two first team quality players missing out. He's a good player but we need a pattern of play that makes us better with him, rather than just having a better player on the pitch.

Do we need him to though? Szobo didn't start plenty of big games last year and we coped fine without him. Palace away (w), Arsenal away (d), Madrid home (w) Villa home (w), Newcastle away (d), West Ham away (5-0), United home (d).

Wirtz could easily be the difference from getting 1 point against a stubborn Forest and 6 next year.

[memzey]

I wouldn't want to sacrifice defensive stability in order to chase a few more goals, when we are already the country's leading scorers by miles. This is my concern, that we'd become unbalanced as a result, even in some of the games you mention.

We shall see I suppose.

[RedReet]

I wouldn't want to sacrifice defensive stability in order to chase a few more goals, when we are already the country's leading scorers by miles. This is my concern, that we'd become unbalanced as a result, even in some of the games you mention.

We shall see I suppose.

I agree, but I assumed one of the reasons we went all out for Wirtz was that he could provide the extra goal threat, without compromising too much on the defensive side of things. I didn't realise just how good his defensive stats were until recently.

But that's just me putting 2 and 2 together, I can also see the benefit of playing him as part of the front 3, as has been discussed. My gut instinct though is that more often than not we'll see him in the midfield 3.

[Exiled_red]

I wouldn't want to sacrifice defensive stability in order to chase a few more goals, when we are already the country's leading scorers by miles. This is my concern, that we'd become unbalanced as a result, even in some of the games you mention.

We shall see I suppose.

I think we are looking at a change of system I don't see Wirtz swapping like for like with Szoboszlai in midfield as you would think that makes us too attack focused, but I don't see him swapping out a LW role (even if it is narrower) as Gakpo was quite effective down that side 18 goals and 5 assists I believe last year in all competitions. Wirtz going into that role I don't think gives us the step change you would expect from a £100m signing. Obviously business isn't finished yet so perhaps that helps the picture become more clear. Also if Wirtz plays some kind of LW role surely Diaz or Gakpo would be off, no way we keep 3 players for that position.

[Norbs]

Most of the time he is exactly that


Cutting infield to get onto his stronger foot.

So we get a king on the right and a könig on the left

[Charly]

And we also have Endo whos done well when hes pushed back there. Plus Nat Phillips, the greatest english defender in the league.

I feel like you ****ed us there.

[kingfunk]

I wouldn't want to sacrifice defensive stability in order to chase a few more goals, when we are already the country's leading scorers by miles. This is my concern, that we'd become unbalanced as a result, even in some of the games you mention.

We shall see I suppose.

Wirtz out.

[fidget]

Sell him now before he ruins us!

[memzey]

Wirtz out.

Yes. Exactly this.

These are my actual thoughts on the matter:

He’s obviously a very good player I just can’t see where he fits into our current system without a defensive compromise or overload in the LW position. That might mean we are going to be happy to compromise in that way or change the system. Given the fact that we pissed the league last year by scoring the most goals of any team, I didn’t think we needed to weaken the defence to score more goals or radically change our system. Arne and the spreadsheet boys have probably got a plan to address this, they certainly deserve the benefit of the doubt, it just isn’t obvious to me how they will do it. I look forward with interest to finding out.

PS- WIRTZ OUT!!!!

[Scratch]

By buying Frimpong and Kirkez, and possibly looking at Guehi, are we not in fact strengthening our defence?

Kirkez is a step up on either Tsimi or Robbo.
We've all bemoaned Trent's defending for years so having Frimpong is a good thing.
Guehi is better (currently) than Quansah.

Ergo, defence strengthened, not weakened.

The midfield core remains the same, we just might shuffle people round a little.
And I reckon Wirtz won't be a LW, i think he will be our Bobby F, feeding Salah/Gakpo/Diaz/StrikerUnkown from anywhere he feels like.

[Doc_Piptorious]

Yes. Exactly this.

These are my actual thoughts on the matter:

He’s obviously a very good player I just can’t see where he fits into our current system without a defensive compromise or overload in the LW position. That might mean we are going to be happy to compromise in that way or change the system. Given the fact that we pissed the league last year by scoring the most goals of any team, I didn’t think we needed to weaken the defence to score more goals or radically change our system. Arne and the spreadsheet boys have probably got a plan to address this, they certainly deserve the benefit of the doubt, it just isn’t obvious to me how they will do it. I look forward with interest to finding out.

PS- WIRTZ OUT!!!!

Wirtz does not neglect defensive duties off the ball though. He is a very proactive presser and blocks a lot of the attempts by the other team to play out from the back.

He drops back into a more traditional MF role when his team is under pressure too.

Based on how he was at Leverkusen, we will not be losing any workrate with him in the team imo.

[Kenneth]

Is Guehi good enough to replace Konate, is probably a more relevant question at the moment. I think we might sign 2 CBs