Florian Wirtz drops hint on what to expect after £116m deal | OneFootball

Wirtz was excellent against Frankfurt

We’ve seen the pressure put on the likes of Jack Grealish and Moises Caicedo due to their £100m+ price tags. And in the cold light of day Wirtz should be treated no different.

His display against Eintracht Frankfurt was a good start - but no more than that. He needs to sustain it. And Arne Slot needs to find a way to replicate the effect he had on the game - beginning this weekend against Brentford.

But first, the caveats. Frankfurt are REALLY bad defensively. And by the time Wirtz took hold of the game in the second half, they were already well beaten.

Two set-piece goals just before half-time buried the Eagles - putting them 3-1 behind at the break. Their goals against totals now read 4, 4, 5, 3, 2 and 5 for their last six matches. It might be a run of historically bad proportions.

Time to sustain this form

It’s not going to be like this every week but the signs are encouraging.

Wirtz played 90 minutes, added his first two assists for the club - no doubt removing a very big monkey from his back. The Germany international made four key passes - aside from his two assists - and completed 54 of his accurate 63 passes in the opposition half.

That in turn demonstrated that he’s FINALLY not coming too deep for involvement - instead utilising the space ceded to him by Slot’s decision to drop Mohamed Salah out of the attack. It’s no coincidence that his first assist came from the right-hand channel.

Wirtz had one shot - a free-kick which is encouraging but not enough to suggest he should go past Dominik Szoboszlai - or even Virgil van Dijk - in the pecking order just yet.

Interestingly he didn’t dribble a lot - completing one of his two attempts. That stands in contrast to the extent of the ball-carrying he did while at Leverkusen for the past few seasons. Fewer touches, bigger impact?

So let this represent the first, significant step on the road for Wirtz. He’s demonstrated he can orchestrate games and create goals - not only chances.

The next challenge will be to do it in the Premier League and then against better defences than this. We can’t play Frankfurt every week, sadly, but this could ultimately prove to be a useful sandbox for what’s to come.