Paul Scholes cannot believe how quickly Anfield has lost it’s fear factor and believes Florian Wirtz could actually be causing problems for Liverpool despite being a ‘brilliant footballer’.
The Reds were held to a 1-1 draw by struggling Spurs on Sunday and will have to overturn a 1-0 deficit against Galatasaray tomorrow if they’re to progress through to the next round of the Champions League.
Arne Slot’s side have picked up 28 points from their 15 league games at home this term but have suffered defeats to Manchester United, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest as well as PSV in Europe’s premier competition.
Former Manchester United midfielder now believes Anfield is ‘one of the easiest places to play’.
He told The Good, The Bad and The Football Podcast (via Rousing The Kop): “They’ve become almost a possession-based team. Florian Wirtz is a brilliant, brilliant footballer, but I think he’s made them more into possession.
“I think under Klopp, and probably under past managers as well from Liverpool, the last thing they’re thinking about at home is about playing football.
“They’re just thinking about kicking the —- out of you and stopping you from playing. Now, this last year and a half, it’s become probably one of the easiest places to play. And you would never ever say that about Anfield.
“But I think that, and look, they won the league, brilliant. And they won it quite early last year. And I think the signs were probably, look, you can’t probably judge it when they’ve already won the league and they step off a little bit.”
Wirtz missed the league victories over Nottingham Forest and West Ham recently as well as the dismal defeat to Wolves at Molineux.
Prior to his back injury, it appeared the German international was starting to settle on Merseyside and had picked up five goals and two assists in January.
There’s no doubting his quality, but Slot is yet to get the best out of our No. 7 and it remains unclear as to what his best position actually is.
The former Bayer Leverkusen man could’ve had a brace in Istanbul last week but his finishing let him down and we were left ruing them chances as the hosts won by a single goal.
Tomorrow’s clash at Anfield will be completely different however, with no supporters of the Turkish club able to travel to Merseyside due to a UEFA suspension and Liverpool in need of a major reaction following Sunday’s lacklustre showing against Spurs.
It’s time for Wirtz to show what he’s capable of and prove why we splashed over £100m for his services in the summer.
During the entirety of the previous league campaign, Liverpool lost just once and picked up 46 points from a possible 57.
So far this term, we’ve already lost three league games at L4 with four still to play – and have picked up just 28 points from a possible 45.
When you look at those statistics, it would appear Anfield has lost its fear factor.
Teams are confident of snatching a result and there’s a feeling amongst Kopites that they know what’s coming when the game is still in the balance heading towards the final stages of the game.
It was no surprise when Spurs equalised on Sunday – and it was even less of a surprise that it was former Everton man Richarlison who grabbed the goal.
Liverpool need to make Anfield a horrible place tomorrow if we’re to have any chance of progressing through to the quarter-finals.
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