Steve Nicol felt that one Liverpool player had his best game for the club in the 2-1 victory against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday night.
After Marcos Llorente scored his customary goal at Anfield to put the visitors in front, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister struck either side of half-time to overturn the Reds’ deficit and send them on their way to a winning start in the Champions League.
Florian Wirtz is still awaiting his first goal of the season, but his overall performance against Diego Simeone’s side didn’t go unnoticed, with the German unlucky not to have an assist for Bradley Barcola as the Frenchman dragged his shot wide early in the second half.
Speaking on ESPN FC, Nicol praised the efforts of Liverpool’s number 7 in the win over Atletico and is hopeful that it’ll be a sign of things to come from the 23-year-old.
The former Reds defender said: “I’ve got to say that, if Florian Wirtz can influence the game the way he did today in the Premier League, then things are looking up for Liverpool, because I think that’s the best he’s played in a Liverpool jersey.
“[He showed] all the things that we love. The chance that Barcola had was all about the lovely ball from him. He gave three or maybe even four superb balls to [Alexander] Isak in and around the penalty box.”
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After a disappointing first year at Anfield, the microscope was firmly on Wirtz going into this campaign to see if he could have a more pronounced impact for Liverpool, with Gary Neville saying last month that he wanted to ‘put a rocket up’ the German playmaker.
To be fair to the 23-year-old, he’s been linking up more fluently with Isak in recent weeks, with signs of a potentially lethal partnership flowering, and he ought to have had an assist last night only for Barcola’s unexpected miss when running through on goal.
Liverpool Echo journalist Ian Doyle wrote that the Reds’ number 7 became ‘increasingly influential’ during the second half, and the figures below from Sofascore illustrate how involved he was throughout the game, even if he didn’t record a shot of his own.
There’s so much to like about Wirtz, who moves around the pitch with such guile and grace, although criticism of his output (just seven goals in 53 games) is understandable.
Hopefully he won’t lose any of his strongest traits as the season goes on and can also improve his end product in the coming months. Do that, and Liverpool will have a genuine magician on their hands.
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Totally agree. Wirtz had a great influence on the game. As always Nicol gets it spot on
Yes Wirtz was good last night. The Kerkez/Ngumoha combination seemed disjointed/unbalanced. Kerkez seems to have his head higher than his ceiling and needs to ground himself a little more/concentrate all the game on your defence Milos and other things will come in time. Munoz for mine when he plays always looks comfortable /dangerous when on the ball. McAllister had a very sound game and needs to continue that way and will if that happens be rewarded with another contract…Araujo looks to be a true defender/weapon with his head in the box/if he can get them in the back of the net/will assist VVD admirably/he also had a good game. Szobo was doing again a lot of wiping up for deficient defence at the back and is as always a hero for LFC. YNWA
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