Liverpool have been widely tipped to sign Florian Wirtz from Bayer Leverkusen this summer – and that could be bad news for one Reds star.
At 22 years of age, Wirtz is regarded as one of the finest talents in Europe after shining for both Leverkusen and the German national team.
Liverpool have already signed Jeremie Frimpong this summer as they deal with life without Trent Alexander-Arnold, and they’re reported to be in the process of recruiting Wirtz for a club record £109m, as well as left-back Milos Kerkez from Bournemouth.
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Wirtz’s role assesssed
There’s little doubt that Wirtz will go straight into the starting line-up if he arrives at Anfield, which means that one of their title-winning side will have to miss out.
Former Liverpool star Stan Collymore expects the German to be deployed in a similar number 10 role to the one he occupied at Leverkusen.
“I think that Wirtz will play as a classic 10,” Collymore told FFT. “I don’t think it will change a lot in terms of the forward line, whether that be Mo Salah, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Luis Diaz, although they might get rid of one of them to free up some cash.
“Wirtz is there to be able to create from a number 10 position so as Mo Salah gets older, he isn’t taking the ball from 30 or 40 yards and taking players on.
“Mo can concentrate on getting into the box more and doing what he does best, which is score goals. Wirtz will be an extra midfielder rather than an extra forward.”
Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai formed a formidable midfield trio for Liverpool as they charged to the Premier League title – who then, will miss out on the starting line-up?
“I think it’ll be horses for course,” Collymore said, speaking in association with NewBettingSites.uk. “They’re going to want to win the Champions League, and you see the slight change now from possession-based football to teams getting players in who can run with the ball. Wirtz can certainly do that.
“It would then become ‘What’s Liverpool’s strongest midfield?’ Wirtz goes in, you’d probably say in front of Mac Allister and Szoboszlai, who’d be a bit more responsible for the legwork.
“You’ve seen Szoboszlai at times playing a bit of a deeper role, and certainly Mac Allister has the work rate.
“I don’t think it’ll be Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Gravenberch and a number 10, and two strikers, because Liverpool play with somebody straight down the middle as an out of an out forward, with Salah and Gakpo or Diaz on either side.
“It’ll be fascinating to see whether Arne Slot just says, ‘Right, Wirtz is going to be a number 10, and we’re going to play the up top as we’ve done for a number of years’.
“Then Szoboszlai and Mac Allister, or Szoboszlai and Gravenberch, they’re going to have to do more of a shift, and Wirtz will get back and help with that. Or I could see difficult games away in Europe where they might leave out an out-and-out forward, and play Wirtz in more of a floating role, with Mo Salah on the shoulder of the last man.
“But I think fundamentally, Wirtz is there to do what he does well, midway through the opponent’s half to the edge of the box, going past people, creating chances, getting into the box and scoring goals as well.”
