Julian Nagelsmann says who he thinks is to blame for Florian Wirtz’s ‘difficult’ Liverpool start | OneFootball

Julian Nagelsmann has identified who he thinks is to blame for the ‘difficult’ start that Florian Wirtz has had to his time at Liverpool.

The 22-year-old was signed from Bayer Leverkusen in a £116m deal in June but, after 16 appearances for the Reds, the playmaker has yet to score for his new club and has registered just three assists.

It’s quite a drop-off from the 31 G/A that he plundered last season, and Gary Neville has said that the German ‘looks like a little boy’ up against some Premier League midfields.

However, Nagelsmann feels that Wirtz needs more help from his Liverpool teammates, who the Germany manager blamed for not capitalising on the chances created by our number 7.

(Photo by Christian Kaspar-Bartke/Getty Images)

Nagelsmann blames Liverpool players for Wirtz’s ‘difficult’ start

The Nationalmannschaft boss said (via Sky Sports): “Liverpool could also help him out by scoring some of the chances he creates. They somehow don’t like to shoot the ball in.

“To be honest, the overall situation doesn’t make it easy for Flo either. The whole club isn’t as stable this year as it was last year. It’s much harder to slip into the team now.

“If you look at the game against [Manchester] City, they were actually the worse team over the 90 minutes, so it’s also difficult for Flo to make a big impact.

“Ultimately, the overall situation is such that he just needs a little more time, which is normal. You see that with other players who move to the Premier League too.”

(Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Does Wirtz need to do more, or does Nagelsmann have a point?

It’s natural that, in his role as Germany manager, Nagelsmann will stick up for Wirtz, and the 38-year-old is quite right in saying that the playmaker deserves time to adapt to the English top flight.

The standout example of our number 7 being deprived of an assist is when he executed a brilliant flick towards Mo Salah against Chelsea, only for the Egyptian to miss the target with a chance that anyone would expect him to score.

At the same time, the figures from FBref would suggest that the 22-year-old ought to have gotten off the mark for Liverpool by now.

From what we’ve seen from Wirtz so far, it’s reasonable to expect that he should have at least a couple of goals for Liverpool by now, considering how much he’s played and what he’s produced on the pitch, but he’s also been unlucky that some of the chances he’s created haven’t been finished off.

We know that the 22-year-old is capable of making a consistent impact in the final third – that’s obvious from his time at Leverkusen – but hopefully he can soon do likewise at Anfield and quieten the critics who are only too happy to label him an expensive flop.

You can watch Slot’s full post-Man City press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: