Liverpool star is in trouble, may not play with teammate

Liverpool star is in trouble, may not play with teammate One Liverpool star is in clear trouble. He may not be able to play with an expensive teammate - so what does Andoni Iraola do? Florian Wirtz arrived at Liverpool last year with an incredible amount of hype. In all truth, he was probably the biggest signing the club have ever made. It's not a market the Reds have ever shopped in, after all. A world-class talent who's wanted by every major club in Europe? Liverpool just don't sign those players. Or didn't. Until Wirtz. But Wirtz hasn't lived up to expectations. A lot of that simply isn't his fault - he arrived at a club that had a dysfunctional squad and a head coach who couldn't fit the players together. Virtually everyone underperformed last season and singling out Wirtz is nonsensical. This season? It remains to be seen if things are different. Liverpool haven't started particularly well and you need only watch one game to see that this squad remains dysfunctional. One problem lies in midfield. Liverpool lack a defensive midfielder and it leads to a lack of control in the middle. Though the bigger concern is that every midfielder appears better-suited to playing alongside a defensive midfielder rather than each other. Florian Wirtz's Ryan Gravenberch problem We're not sure Ryan Gravenberch can play with Wirtz. In fact, he struggles to play alongside Dominik Szoboszlai in the middle - an enormous problem as the pair signed big-money new contracts this year. But it seems incredibly apparent right now that to get more out of Wirtz, you must sacrifice Gravenberch. The Dutchman is at his best when driving forward from midfield and roaming between the lines - and that means taking away Wirtz's space. Take a look at this: heatmaps of the two players from the opening fixture against Newcastle United.
© FOTMOB
On the top there, we have Gravenberch. On the bottom, Wirtz. Both had the majority of their possession on the brink of the attacking third - i.e. the attacking midfielder space. And that's a problem, given only one of those players is supposed to be an attacking midfielder. The even bigger problem is that the player with the deepest and most central 'red zone' is Wirtz - the absolute opposite of how things are supposed to be. That even translated to defence! Both Newcastle goals came from Gravenberch pushing into the attack, losing the ball, and Liverpool being ill-equipped to stop a counter-attack. What was the plan there? For Wirtz to offer defensive cover? Because there are about 50 reasons why that's a tactically awful idea. Now, to Iraola's credit, he plainly didn't like it either. The pair have not started a game together since, or at least hadn't until the Fulham clash on Saturday. So let's have a look at their heatmaps from that one:
© FOTMOB
Once again, Gravenberch top, Wirtz bottom. The change here is stark, with Wirtz much further forward on average than his teammate and dominating at least one area of the pitch. Virtually all of his possession came in that 'no.10 space', too. But here's the catch. Forcing Gravenberch to sit deeper completely neutered him and he offered essentially nothing across his time on the pitch. Liverpool's sitting midfielder - someone looking to control the game in possession - cannot be attempting 30 passes in 67 minutes. Kostas Tsimikas, for comparison, attempted 31 in his 45 minutes at left-back. We're not sure the pair of them can play together. Wirtz's game is one that strips Gravenberch of his natural qualities, while the German is also not the right player to adapt to Gravenberch. Dominik Szoboszlai, when he was playing as the no.10, can do it better. He naturally drops deeper to get his foot on the ball, so covering Gravenberch's runs forward is comfortable - or at least more comfortable. But Wirtz? He just doesn't mesh with Gravenberch at all. And that's an enormous problem for both when they've eached signed deals for enormous money within the last 18 months.