Florian Wirtz ‘increasingly indicating’ he wants Xabi Alonso to replace Arne Slot at Liverpool – report

Subhankar Mondal 23 Mar 2026 7:42 PM

Liverpool star Florian Wirtz

Liverpool attacking midfielder Florian Wirtz would prefer to work with Xabi Alonso at Anfield next season to having Arne Slot as his manager, according to a report.

Wirtz played under Alonso at Bayer Leverkusen and won the Bundesliga title in the 2023/24 campaign.

When Alonso was appointed the Real Madrid manager last summer, the former Liverpool midfielder wanted Los Blancos to sign Wirtz.

Madrid president Florentino Perez did not grant Alonso’s request, with Wirtz eventually joining Liverpool in a £116million deal.

Wirtz initially struggled to make an impact and fit in Slot’s system at Liverpool, but the 22-year-old has been in good form lately.

The pressure on Slot is building, with Liverpool in danger of missing out on the Premier League top five.

READ: Premier League winners and losers: Pereira, pre-break Spurs, Everton, Liverpool, £748.4m Chelsea

While it is unlikely that Liverpool owners, Fenway Sports Group (FSG), will sack Slot before the end of the season, discussions will be held on the Dutchman’s future thereafter.

Alonso is the leading candidate to take over from Slot should Liverpool decide to pull the trigger.

There have already been reports about Alonso demanding three major signings for Liverpool in the summer of 2026.

It has now been claimed by a German source that Wirtz, too, would like to see Alonso take over at Liverpool at the end of the season.

Bayern Space, with over 34,000 followers on X, has noted on the platform: “Florian Wirtz has informed German national teammates and several of his former Leverkusen teammates, including Jonathan Tah, now at Bayern, that Sebastián Parrilla, Xabi Alonso’s long-time assistant at Leverkusen and most recently part of his staff in Madrid, has very recently reached out to him.

“Jeremie Frimpong is also understood to be involved in these exchanges, with direct contact even with Xabi Alonso himself never having stopped, but what elevates this beyond routine contact is the depth and tone of the conversations, Parrilla is said to have asked highly specific and unusually concrete questions about life in Liverpool, the internal dressing room dynamic, the atmosphere around the club on and off the pitch, and even which structural or sporting aspects would require adjustment.

“Inside those circles, Florian is increasingly indicating that his preferred outcome would be Xabi Alonso taking over at Liverpool, and the reactivation of contact at assistant level, combined with the detail and intent behind these discussions, is not being interpreted as casual or nostalgic communication.

“It points far more towards something deliberate, coordinated and quietly progressing in the background, with strong indications that Alonso and his staff are at the very least seriously exploring, if not already preparing for, a potential move into that environment.”

Liverpool Arne Slot