Liverpool have officially found a superstar: he's going to be their main man | OneFootball

Liverpool were brilliant against Galatasaray this week. They've officially found themselves a superstar.

Arne Slot took a risk against Galatasaray as he stepped away from his usual 4-2-3-1 formation and played more of a 4-4-2. Gone were the wingers and the no.10 as they forced their way through the middle of the pitch.

Both Hugo Ekitike and Mo Salah, the starting strikers, got themselves goals. Salah assisted Ekitike for his, in fact.

But they weren't the players running the show here. That was Florian Wirtz, who announced here that he's a genuine superstar who will lead this team going forward.

There can be no question he's the main man anymore.

The Florian Wirtz show

The headline is that Wirtz created eight chances in this one. That's the most by a Liverpool player in a UEFA Champions League fixture for a decade.

But that might undersell how involved he was. A 'created chance' can be a two yard pass that someone smashes in from 30 yards, after all (and we'll get to his example of that).

This was about more than the eight chances.

Wirtz had a free role here, gifted the licence to roam all over the pitch looking to make things happen. He did just that, moving from the left to the right all game long.

Ekitike's 17th-minute half chance was the result of Wirtz picking up the ball on the right-hand side of the box, dribbling on the byline and standing it up for the Frenchman. On 32 minutes he drifted past players in the middle to setup a Dominik Szoboszlai shot from distance that forced a good save.

And that was just the start. On 52 minutes, Wirtz played a delicate chip through the defence that allowed Salah a volley on goal. It was well-saved but Ryan Gravenberch put home the rebound.

Then just two minutes later Wirtz did the difficult work to send Jeremie Frimpong free down the right. The resulting cross hit the defender and went in for an own goal - only for VAR to disallow it for a tight offside.

61 minutes? Wirtz created the space for Salah's shot that brought a goal. This was the two-yard pass (if that) but came on the end of a flurry of passes and a backheel. The German got involved and created that goal, even if the Egyptian did the hard bit.

And there was more. Wirtz did brilliantly down the left on 84 minutes to create a chance for Cody Gakpo. He created another for Szoboszlai shortly afterwards by winning the ball back in a high press.

All of this is just a flavour, too. Wirtz offered even more and we haven't actually touched on most of the eight created chances.

Ekitike, Salah, Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Frimpong and Gakpo all directly benefitted from Wirtz's work. He was as involved as can be and the chief reason that Galatasaray couldn't cope with Liverpool.