Why Florian Wirtz works for Jurgen Klopp’s Germany but not yet Liverpool

“Bursting with joy” was how Jurgen Klopp described the “exceptional” Florian Wirtz after his starring performance for Germany, and such emotion has not been seen on Merseyside in the 16 months since he moved there.

Wirtz was on the scoresheet for the first time since April, equalling his G/A contribution for Liverpool this season, as Germany defeated Serbia 2-0 in the Nations League, giving Klopp his first win as national team boss.

For the second half, he was given the captain’s armband and in Klopp, Wirtz clearly has a huge admirer.

But compare this Wirtz to the one in the red of Liverpool and the two are diametrically opposed, both in demeanour and effectiveness.

Liverpool have been unable to solve a puzzle that successive Germany coaches have managed to, but why does Wirtz work for Germany and not Liverpool?

If we start with why he does work for Germany, Klopp is in the oddly beneficial position of having a rather underwhelming talent pool of Germany attackers to choose from.

Twelve years ago for their World Cup win, Germany boasted Miroslav Klose, Thomas Muller, Lukas Podolski, Julian Draxler and Andre Schurrle among their options. None of Kevin Schade, Kai Havertz, Karim Adeyemi, Nick Woltemade or Younes Ebotuaol would get anywhere near that.

That lack of talent means Klopp can put Wirtz up front as part of a 4-4-2 without having to bench a superstar and attract all the headlines that come with it. Doing so at Liverpool and leaving Alexander Isak out would raise plenty of eyebrows and put even more pressure on Wirtz to perform.

This positional change gave Wirtz the freedom to focus on attacking and it is shown in his heatmaps.

As seen by the ones produced by FotMob, if we look at his positioning against Serbia, he rarely spent time in his own half and instead, his map is concentrated on the attacking third.

If we look at his previous game for Liverpool, a 1-0 win at Bournemouth, Wirtz appears all over the pitch, showing how much more transitional he is expected to be when playing in a midfield role – and the defensive responsibility that comes with it.

Wirtz also saw a lot more of the ball with Germany than he usually does with Liverpool. In the Germany match, he had 97 touches compared to 53 for Liverpool.

As to why Wirtz worked better as a false nine compared to an attacking midfielder, he is not the quickest player and an explanation of his lower touches for his club can be that when Liverpool win possession, he is simply outpaced by the quicker wingers meaning that he arrives late on counter attacks. In comparison, he is much more involved when already high up the pitch and the play comes to him rather than the other way round.

The difference in Wirtz’s form also comes down to two former Newcastle strikers. For Germany, he played alongside Nick Woltemade who, as Eddie Howe found out to his detriment, is not a number nine and would like to play deeper.

The benefit of that for Wirtz is he has a lot of free penalty area space to run into. He had the most touches in the opposition box of any player against Serbia. At Liverpool, Isak is more of a traditional nine and so fills that space Wirtz wants to work in.

What happens behind Wirtz is as important. Behind him for Germany, three of the four players were 23 or under and for lack of a better term, told to run their bollocks off. Each of those three made at least two tackles and removed any defensive requirement for Wirtz.

Meanwhile at Liverpool, a midfield rejuvenation was ignored in favour of signing defenders and attackers, meaning Wirtz is part of a midfield three with a combined age of 75. Liverpool in fact run the least on average of all 20 Premier League teams.

There is context to be considered too. While impressive, Wirtz’s performance came against a Serbian team rated 40th in the FIFA rankings. The Premier League is also a well-publicised league of physical and uber-athletic players. A summer bulk up as prescribed by many did not take place.

Wirtz himself has given a blueprint as to what gets the best out of him. “What do I need to be at my best? Ideally, a lot of space in every game so I can do what I want,” he said before laughing, but it is true and something he will never be afforded in the Premier League, especially when you come with a £116m price tag.

There is the mental aspect of football too. Wirtz was the star at Bayer Leverkusen and, whether through necessity or lack of alternatives, Klopp has made him so for Germany too. The lack of transfers mean national team coaches have to work with what they have already got, something Premier League clubs with all their many millions do not.

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Technical but not overly agile footballers are a dying breed in Premier League football. To be able to excel in the league, you also have to be quick and strong, Wirtz’s midfield partner Dominik Szoboszlai is far more in the mould of a Premier League footballer. But Wirtz is not an entirely lost cause.

After Germany’s victory, Klopp said “everyone in Liverpool should be happy today” but the man trying to revive his career is also the one responsible for creating a system that does suit Wirtz.

Since the Klopp transformation, Liverpool’s mantra has been high-intensity attacking football in which pace on the counter-attack is important. The front three of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah provided the attacking threat while the midfielders were the engine of the team. Wirtz is far closer to Firmino as a player than he is Jordan Henderson.

Liverpool have evolved Klopp’s 4-3-3 into a 4-2-3-1 but the idea is still the same with the midfield three expected to contribute evenly rather than leaving it to a single player. Wirtz, you suspect would be far more efficient if freed of any defensive duty, but you cannot allow four players to be solely focused on attacking.

Wirtz is not a complete write-off. The question that Andoni Iraola will have to ask himself is will any Premier League teams be as porous as Serbia and whether switching to a style that more favours Wirtz will win more games than relying on the pace of the front three on the counter.

How Liverpool set up against Manchester City and where Wirtz plays will give an indication of just that.

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