There’s been plenty of noise around Wirtz already, and most of it feels like it’s skipping the obvious bit: you can’t judge a player in isolation from the structure he’s been dropped into.
If you’re asking him to play within a slow, clunky setup, then yes, you’re going to blunt what he does best. That’s not making excuses for him. It’s just basic football. Players aren’t magic; they need a platform. And right now, the platform isn’t exactly rolling out the red carpet.
He needs speed around him
Wirtz looks at his best when the football is quick, the movement is constant, and the options appear early. One-touch, two-touch, little angles everywhere. The sort of tempo where you can feel defenders panicking because everything is happening half a second too fast.
When Liverpool play like that, he makes sense. He can receive on the half-turn, combine, and keep attacks alive without needing five touches to get himself going. You can see why supporters latch onto those flashes: that’s the version of him that fits the picture in our heads.
Even in a poor system, he’s still connecting play
What’s actually impressed me is that even when the overall approach feels a bit grim, he’s still been able to knit things together. He’ll find a simple pass under pressure, he’ll show for the ball again, and he’ll keep linking phases when the game threatens to go scrappy.
That adaptability matters. Plenty of talented players go missing when the surroundings aren’t ideal. With him, you can at least see the brain working, trying to solve the problem in front of him. Under the circumstances, that’s a positive.
The fee is a distraction
The price tag always becomes a stick to beat players with, and it’s never really fair. He didn’t set the number. If a club wants top-level talent, this is what the modern game demands: you pay up, then you live with the scrutiny.
But as supporters, we can still be sensible about what we’re watching. If the system is hampering him and he’s still putting a shift in and showing quality, then the answer isn’t to pile on the lad. It’s to look at the setup and ask: are we actually playing in a way that gets the best out of our most gifted footballers?
And if someone’s dishing out takes from across the park, I’m not sure we need to take lectures too seriously. Sort your own chaos first.
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