Florian Wirtz has not met the huge expectations accompanied by a record transfer fee, especially compared to what he has shown at Bayer Leverkusen. However, saying that the German midfielder is playing poorly is a completely different story.
The numbers show that Wirtz is still quite deeply involved in Liverpool's ball deployment. Since the beginning of last season, only 7 players in England have played at least 2,000 minutes and both made and created at least 2 shots per 90 minutes. Wirtz is in this group along with Rayan Cherki, Bruno Fernandes, Bukayo Saka, Phil Foden, Anton Stach and Dominik Szoboszlai.
He is also in the leading group in terms of ability to operate in the final 1/3 of the field. Only 6 players have more touches in the penalty area than Wirtz, while only 10 complete more dribbles. His number of passes into the penalty area is also in the top 20.
Those numbers are not yet statistics from a superstar who is dominating the Premier League. But they are enough to refute the opinion that Wirtz is losing himself.
Even when goals and assists have not come regularly, Wirtz still contributes in many other stages. He pulls the ball forward, finds space between lines, participates in the process of building chances and continuously sends the ball to dangerous areas.
The ability to appear between lines was once one of Wirtz's greatest strengths in the Bundesliga. In the Premier League, this quality is still maintained.
According to Gradient Sports, Wirtz has made 33 passes through the defense, ranking third in the Premier League. Within Liverpool, no player has more than 18 passes of this type.
In other words, Wirtz is still doing a lot to help Liverpool move forward. The only thing is, the most visible part - goals and assists - has not appeared with corresponding frequency.
Last season, Wirtz only scored 0.3 goals plus assists per 90 minutes, a sharp decrease compared to 0.68 in his entire time playing for Leverkusen. Futi, an application that evaluates player performance based on a series of actions when having the ball, scored Wirtz 60 points. This number ranks seventh in the central forward group in the Premier League.
This season, that score is still 60. If only looking at the current score, this number is clearly not commensurate with the fee Liverpool spent. But a record contract is not only decided based on what the player did at the age of 22. Liverpool bought Wirtz for the years ahead.
Wirtz is only 23 years old. The most energetic years of his career have not even started yet. And above all, the German international also needs time.
It is possible that what he did at Leverkusen will never be fully recreated in the Premier League. The space, pace and way opponents defend in England are completely different from the Bundesliga. But there is also not enough data to conclude that Wirtz cannot reach the level that Liverpool expects.
He is still young, still makes penetrating passes, still appears frequently in dangerous areas and still participates in Liverpool's operations.
Liverpool spent a record amount of money because they believed that the best version of Wirtz had not yet appeared. And for a 23-year-old player, that story could not end after just one season.
