Ten reasons ‘magician’ Wirtz is worth £126.9m to Liverpool

Liverpool fans are very giddy about signing Florian Wirtz despite that massive fee, with Viktor Gyokeres also worth a punt.

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Ten reasons why Florian Wirtz will fly at Liverpool
Amid the doom and gloom around Liverpool’s impending signing I have waited for the balancing positive articles/letters to no avail so I thought I’d better write it myself.

In fairness to those doubting the deal their thoughts have been well thought out and articulated, but are to my mind unnecessarily negative.

Here are my top 10 reasons why Wirtz will be a banger at Liverpool.

1. He is an extremely good player. Look at the stats, look at the age profile, look at the clips and swoon, the man is a magician of a player. Without any further analysis any team in the world would benefit from divining him, and we’re getting him.

2. Maybe Arne has a plan for him. I know crazy idea but maybe the coach who just managed Liverpool to a completely unexpected title showing masterful tactical decisions along the way might just have a plan for his and Liverpool’s most expensive signing.

3. Maybe we can’t see that plan and should wait and see. I know I know we all secretly think we know more than actual managers but for me the sign of a great manager is when you can sit back as a fan and let them do their thing and watch. I have only felt this with Klopp and Slot in nearly 40 years as a Liverpool fan, and I have never felt it as strongly as with Arne, he genuinely knows way more about football than the rest of us.

4. Maybe this vision is what sold Liverpool to Wirtz. Wirtz was sold by Slot’s vision for him at Liverpool…that’s literally what the reports said. I suspect strongly that vision wasn’t “horse him up front and see what happens,” despite what the worry warts of the mailbox fear.

5. Slot makes players better. I recently heard a story about a chief scout at a major European club who told his scouts to stop bringing them Feyenoord players at one point apparently, “it’s not the players, it’s the manager,” he said. That was with quite average Eredivisie players, look at what he did with Liverpool’s squad last year, imagine what he can do with Wirtz.

6. Wirtz values improvement as a player. When he controversially left Koln for Leverkusen as a teenager (breaking agreements between the clubs to sign each other’s players) it was to improve himself as a player, he knew Leverkusen was the path for him. He was right. Maybe he’s right again.

7. Trent (remember him) was Liverpool’s creative force the past 7-8 years. Despite how people complain about him Liverpool looked flat for me last year when he wasn’t playing, we looked uninspired. Replacing that at fullback was impossible. There are few players in world football who can deliver that level of creativity week in week out, I think we’re signing one of them. Trent’s wage if he signed would have been equivalent to Wirtz’s.

8. FSG aren’t stupid you know. They took a club floundering outside the top 4 competing with Everton for league position and Spurs for players and have transformed them into league champions and a force in Europe once again. They’re not afraid to spend big when they think the player is going to be transformative for the club (see Allisson and VVD – two all time club and Premier League legends) and do their due diligence when they do.

9. He’s only 22, he is signing on a 6 year deal, if Liverpool only maintain his level for a couple of years he has massive resale value. Yes the figures are massive but Liverpool have earned the right to compete for the world’s best players by managing the club superbly and honestly within the rules. This should be lauded and admired but won’t by large sections of the media and opposition fans, it’s still true though.

10. Wirtz is going to be the creative fulcrum of this year for the next 7-8 years in all likelihood. Players like this raise all boats around them, that’s what makes them transformative.

Every centre back looks better playing beside Virgil or in front of Allisson. Other players value increases like a virtuous circle around these players. However he uses him Wirtz will be centre stage at Liverpool (unlike the German national team where he is shunted to the wing to play second fiddle to Musiala) and the midfields behind him and forwards around him will all shine brighter as a result. Great players make other players look great, even if they’re not sometimes. We’re about to see the Wirtz effect on Liverpool and I for one can’t wait.

So yeah, am I excited, you bet, could it all go horribly wrong as predicted by the masses, of course, but that’s the beauty and the jeopardy of sport. But maybe we should pack away some of the negativity and just enjoy the fact that one of the world most exciting players is coming to the Premier League and just enjoy the football for a change…what’s the Wirtz that could happen?
Dave LFC

MORE ON FLORIAN WIRTZ FROM F365:
👉 Liverpool putting transfer budget aside for ‘risk’ Wirtz should please rival fans
👉 Florian Wirtz value exposed by quarter-price Rayan Cherki in seven damning stats
👉 Five reasons why Florian Wirtz may not actually be a good signing for Liverpool

Not the Wirtz deal
Over the last few days there have been a few emails questioning the sense of the Wirtz deal. What the authors are ignoring is Liverpool’s dedication to data analytics, and the success that has brought them.

In a nutshell, how many bad investments have Liverpool made in the last 7 years? Darwin is questionable but the data scientists were opposed to the deal, Klopp pushed it through. Other than that, their record of spending big is unblemished: VVD, Alisson, Szoboszlai, Diaz, Jota, Gakpo, Salah and Fabinho. That is a mighty formidable list, and of course, the data team was also responsible for identifying Slot.

If Liverpool’s analytics team think Wirtz is worth breaking the bank for, it’s safe to assume he’s going to be pretty special. I for one can’t wait to see him play.
Rob

…I am so excited about the Wirtz deal. This is the kind of signing that many felt FSG were incapable so it feels a little surreal. I remember towards the end of the season a couple of people wrote in and suggested we buy a 10 like Eze, KDB so it is satisfying that the Club was already a step ahead. They could easily have brought in someone cheap like Cherki but they went and brought in one of the hottest talent out there. We finally have our Coutinho replacement.

The 10 spot is there for the taking. Dominik did start to grow into the role towards the end of the season but his tally of 5 goals and 6 assists over 32 games would be more impressive if he played in a deeper position which probably suits his all-action nature.

The other alternative was Curtis Jones who managed 3 goals and 3 assists across similar appearances though most off the bench. The universal criticism of Jones is that he holds on to the ball too long always reluctant to pass it to his better team mates until they are offside or marked which was really frustrating. If the signing of Wirtz means C.Jones never plays in that position again then it is totally worth it.

Not sure why Macca wasn’t used there more often, he tallied 5 goals and 5 assists from deep or Harvey Eliott who looked descent in pre-season.

Anyway the point is the bar has been set rather low and Florian Wirtz should comfortably clear it. He got 10 goals and 12 assists this season getting both double figures for goals and assists for the second successive season. Apparently only him and Salah have done so across Europe in the last two seasons so it’s not a mean feat.

Personally, I feel the signings of Wirtz and Frimpong are help get the best out of Salah again. Slot managed to do that this season but the opponents did start to adapt late on and also Trent is gone. His passing range and ability to release Salah quickly as he notably did against City twice will be missed.

However, Frimpong could be just as devastating in his own way. He loves to overlap and his raw speed and ability to take on his man will demand attention. He got 5 goals and 5 assists this season. Trent loved to invert into midfield which usually meant it was Szobo providing support to Salah. But with our new fullback now doing ‘normal’ fullback things it should mean our new 10 can now take on the creative burden that belonged to Trent.
Philip Correa (Now just get rid of Nunez)

Why the Gyokeres scepticism?
With the talk of Gyokeres moving from Sporting for a fee of £70m+ potentially to Arsenal or Man United I’ve seen a lot of comments playing down his talent and asking why a club would pay so much for a player from the Primera Liga. Every time I’ve seen Gyokeres play he’s looked very good but I can’t ignore that the Portuguese league isn’t as strong as the Premier, so if he did move what kind of performance could we expect?

I’m not a data scientist and have limited time so I’ve looked at the most basic stats, goals and assists in relation to minutes played, and I’ve only looked at league stats. There aren’t a great number of attacking players moving directly to the Premier League from Portugal in recent seasons so my sample is the following five players, Bruno Fernandes, Enzo Fernandez, Darwen Nunez, Luis Diaz, and Evanilson.

Every one of these players experienced a drop off in attacking numbers when moving to the Premier League which on average equated to a 35% increase in the number of minutes required to achieve a goal or assist. The best performing was Luis Diaz with only a 21% increase and the worst was Bruno at 43%. In a simple example we could thus expect a player achieving a goal involvement every 100 minutes in Portugal to need 135 minutes to do so in the Premier League.

Gyokeres has managed a goal involvement every 67.5 minutes in the Primera Liga which would translate to every 91 minutes over here. That figure would place him narrowly behind Mo Salah who is at 90. If he performed better, in line with Diaz, he’d be getting similar numbers to Haaland who is the league’s best. If the drop off was more than average, in line with Bruno, he’d still be the third best in the league getting better numbers than Isak.

Obviously there are other factors to consider. Would he be on penalties for his new club, would the system be geared towards him, would he personally react well to the increased pressure etc? With Arsenal and United the likely destinations I would argue he’d be going somewhere that wants to get the best from him and that would change their style to accommodate his talents so there would be little chance of a massive drop off in numbers.

I think it’s highly likely Gyokeres would be an elite level striker in the Premier League and so the fee rumoured seems fair enough. It is right to say he could not replicate his Sporting numbers in England but he doesn’t have to in order to be one of the best and be worth his fee. The league would probably be getting a forward with 20+ goals and perhaps 30+ goal involvements in a season and would transform the fortunes of the club that signed him. He’s a bloody good striker, somebody should sign him and I hope United can somehow get it done.
Dave, Manchester

READ: Gyokeres too old, too big, too striker-ish for Arsenal? The nonsense debunked

Brentford and Bournemouth should worry
One thing that strikes me is that potentially Brentford and Bournemouth fans should be slightly worried about the upcoming season.

Brentford are rumored to be selling Mbeumo and Thomas Frank is rumored to be joining Spurs, both will be big losses. If Wissa also goes, as is rumored, then it will be an uphill challenge for a new manager in a new league to replace the 38 goals of those two.

Same with Bournemouth if Semenyo as well leaves after Huijsen and Kerkez. At least they will still have Iraola (hopefully), but Bournemouth at the best of times can smash Newcastle one week and lose to Southampton the next week and have long spells of brilliant or poor.

Why this struck me was that both got promoted together and saw the inexplicable collapse of Leicester , Leeds and Southampton in that season allowing them to stabilize together with Fulham.

Hopefully, both do not sell too many of their good players. Would be interested to hear what Brentford and Bournemouth fans think about the upcoming season.
Shrivathsa

When you start inventing Tuchel defeats
Nothing says ‘Get another hobby’ like Sandeep, London writing paragraphs and paragraphs about Tuchel vs Southgate after 3 competitive games (won 6-0) and an end of season friendly defeat (lost 3-1), having somehow hallucinated another friendly defeat that never happened. All in the name of talking ‘facts’ apparently. Something’s got to give, people…
Pablo, MUFC, Dublin

…Can someone ask Sandeep to watch the highlights of that “Golden Period” between 66-90, especially going out 3-2 to Germany in 70, not qualifying for 74 and 78 and then from 82 onwards watch Bobby stumble on through tournaments and finally getting there with a sweeper having been advised by the players to change system…….then maybe he might want to check his facts.

I don’t give a **** about identity. The only thing he’s noted is “reconnecting” with the fans. Tuchel is not to blame here. The players are better than this, and we’re back to them not performing in an England shirt again. Simple. Trying to make out Gareth was better 4 games in to a new manager’s reign is disingenuous and dumb.
EneaIacobucci

Actually, sack him
Good morning, in my opinion he should resign with no severance costs involved. Sadly he has failed to demonstrate any authority or flare.

Personally I had no time whatsoever for Southgate and certainly failed to understand his knighthood.

I think either Gerrard or Posticoglu would fit. I think Posticoglu would be my preference. As a Tottenham supporter I could understand his sacking but didn’t agree with it.

I think Posticoglu would bring some camaraderie which is clearly lacking and also discipline.
Mike Gibbons, Southampton

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