Florian Wirtz tops stats chart as pundit makes 'this has been coming' Liverpool claim

Any statistic can be twisted to fit an agenda with the lack of goals and assists for Liverpool since signing in the summer providing an easy stick to beat Florian Wirtz with.

A 5/10 performance against Galatasaray was the latest to fail to hit the sort of heights expected of a £116m signing with his previous return for Bayer Leverkusen also creating a level of excitement that is yet to be fulfilled. Looking a little deeper though, there has been enough so far to suggest that the Germany international is set to come good. The 22-year old isn’t the only player who has been below his usual standards though.

Florian Wirtz statistic that should encourage Liverpool doubters

Against Galatasaray, if anyone was going to make something happen, it was Wirtz. With clear cut chances created for Hugo Ekitike, Alexander Isak and Connor Bradley, he couldn’t have done much more against a packed defence intent on sitting in and hitting Liverpool on the counter-attack. It is a similar story accross all Premier League playmakers too with Wirtz’s 21 chances created the joint-most in all competitions along with Jack Grealish at Everton according to Opta. He is also performing well in shooting statistics compared to his Liverpool teammates.

The problem is that Liverpool aren’t playing well despite being top of the Premier League table. There needs to be a scapegoat and, usually, it is the new signing or the big money signing that takes the hit and absorbs most of the attention. Highlighting Wirtz alone simply isn’t fair though given how there has been a drastic lack of stability and the team as a whole is underperforming. It certainly isn’t for the want of trying.

Liverpool’s problems are bigger than the form of Florian Wirtz

Jamie Carragher has criticised Wirtz, with Wayne Rooney going as far as to say that he is damaging performances, however, the former Liverpool centre-half has at least accepted that a lot of the problems are down to Arne Slot to fix: "I'm not watching a top team," Carragher told CBS Sports. "Liverpool aren't playing football at the moment, they are playing basketball. It is just end to end and I don't think top teams play like that.

"I expressed that to the manager early on, he'll know that a lot better than me. He is obviously a fantastic manager. But right now Liverpool went from, I would call them a workmanlike team last season, and they have sprinkled a little bit of stardust on it terms of the transfers that they have brought in. And they haven't gained anything going forward but they have lost a lot defensively. I think for the manager now, last season was such a smooth ride for them, he's now got to really earn his money.

“He did last season, won the Premier League, unbelievable. But there's a few problems there that he has got to fix and it'll be really interesting how he goes about it. because he's spent a lot of money. Liverpool got battered by Newcastle in the second half of that game. Newcastle had 10 men. That can't happen. Crystal Palace created seven big chances at the weekend. That's more than any team has conceded in the Premier League all season. Liverpool are the champions. This has been coming. This is not a shock. And the manager needs to fix it."

Fundamentally, Carragher is right, Liverpool are conceding too many chances and are too porous in defence. This is a problem for Slot to fix and it certainly isn’t the fault of Florian Wirtz.