He cost £116 million, he just produced one of the great Premier League creative displays, and yet Florian Wirtz might still be Andoni Iraola‘s biggest headache. As Liverpool came from behind to beat a nine-man Brentford on Saturday and return to winning ways, the German playmaker delivered the numbers of a superstar — but not everyone is convinced he fits the machine.
Florian Wirtz (Credits: BBC Sport)
Wirtz has been under fire all season, failing to reproduce the form that persuaded Liverpool to pay Bayer Leverkusen a club-record fee in June 2025. Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard even suggested this week that the 23-year-old might benefit from being dropped entirely to rebuild his confidence.
On Saturday, Wirtz answered those critics with statistics that were simply staggering. The Germany international created nine chances from open play — more than any other player has managed in a single Premier League game over the past six seasons. The last man to hit that number was Sadio Mane for Liverpool against Burnley in January 2021, and Wirtz is the first player to reach it in an away game since Samir Nasri in August 2011, more than 15 years ago.
He completed 53 of 65 passes (81.5%), led the match with 38 passes in the final third, and set up the comeback by playing in the move that started it all — his second assist in consecutive games, a first for him at Liverpool across all competitions. He now leads the Premier League in chances created this season, level with Pascal Gross on 18.
But Is The System Breaking?
Despite the fireworks, BBC Sport pundit and former Liverpool midfielder Danny Murphy believes the structural problem remains: a midfield built around Wirtz as a number 10 leaves Liverpool too easy to play against.
“They got the job done. First and foremost, that’s another win on the road, which is always positive,” Murphy said. “But I thought they looked too easy to play against. The spaces are too big. They’re playing with two wingers and Wirtz at 10, so they’re relying heavily on the two midfield players to try and cover so much space.”
Murphy’s solution is blunt: drop the luxury number 10 and play three central midfielders. “Always, the priority is foundation, defence, stability, being hard to beat. The other stuff can follow from there. At the moment, it just looks a little bit open. Against better teams, you’re going to get hurt.”
The Numbers Behind The Concern
For all his creativity, Wirtz’s influence on games has been patchy. He has only two goal involvements in seven league games this season, lost possession 19 times against Brentford (second only to Milos Kerkez among Liverpool players), and won just one of his nine duels. Against Brentford, who were reduced to 10 men before half-time, Liverpool still looked alarmingly open before producing 14 of their 21 attempts after the break.
The win did lift Liverpool up to fifth in the table — three wins from their first seven league games under Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot in the summer — and marked the Reds’ first away league win after conceding first since December 2023, ending a run of 19 winless away games when going 1-0 behind.
But as Murphy put it: “They don’t look solid and don’t look together in terms of shape.” Wirtz is clearly a generational talent. Whether Iraola can build a team around him — or whether he must sacrifice him for structure — remains the defining question of Liverpool’s season.
Also Read: Iraola Admits Liverpool In ‘Delicate Situation’ After Double Injury Blow In Brentford Win
Source: BBC Sport — read the full story there.
