It hasnt exactly been a dream start for Florian Wirtz since he made the �116 million switch to the Premier League this summer.
The attacker has struggled to adapt to Arne Slots Liverpool system since joining from Bayer Leverkusen, which has been designed to get the best out of his new team-mate Mohamed Salah.
There is certainly no doubting his talent, and its natural for a young player to take time to come to terms with a new league and club, never mind a new country and culture. Wirtz has regularly been one of the best players in the Bundesliga over the last few years, and its easy to forget hes still only 22 years old.
Florian Wirtz has struggled at Liverpool and he's not the only one
He hasnt been the only new arrival at Anfield to take time to become more familiar with his new surroundings either, with Milos Kerkez and Alexander Isak also not making an immediate impact for varying reasons. Wirtz isnt even the only natural no.10 to need time to acclimatise to the more direct English football this year, as Manchester Citys Rayan Cherki and Tottenhams Xavi Simons have also found it difficult to increase their physical demands.
Arne Slots biggest dilemma with Wirtz has been where to play the creative attacker. He was initially used behind the striker, but Dominik Szoboszlai has returned there in recent weeks, with Liverpools central midfield requiring more solidity.
Under Xabi Alonso, Wirtz was one of two attacking players behind the striker in Leverkusens 3-4-2-1. Arguably, he may be most effective in the central striker capacity for Liverpool as Luis Diaz did so last season; however, with two expensive forwards signed recently, he will unlikely feature there regularly.
The German had his best game in a red shirt in midweek against Real Madrid, as he occupied the left-wing role in the 4-2-3-1. At the Etihad on Sunday, he was surprisingly given the start ahead of Cody Gakpo once again, whilst he was up against another right-back that had been converted from midfield in Matheus Nunes.
Wirtzs position may have ultimately been on the left-hand side, but he was given the freedom to float into space in-front of Citys back four. Andrew Robertson would then provide the width, whilst Hugo Ekitike would also move out to the left if Wirtz was central for a period of time.
Liverpool will ultimately be hugely disappointed with their performance and the result against City at the end of a promising week, but Slot will be aware that Wirtz is making some progress. His skill and movement have been evident from his debut, but now his first touch at pace and awareness of his opponents at speed are improving at a rapid rate.
Just before the half-hour mark, he drew a foul after nutmegging Bernardo Silva on the turn, when he was sandwiched between the Portuguese midfielder and another City player. Only man-of-the-match Jeremy Doku was on the receiving end of more fouls than Wirtzs three in the encounter.
His hybrid role does mean that overall, Liverpool has some adaptation in order to find the right balance in a defensive capacity. He probably could have closed Nunes down quicker when the former Wolves midfielder whipped in a cross for Erling Haaland to head in the opening goal.
When Ekitike was withdrawn in the 55th minute, Slot opted to move Wirtz into the false nine position. This had an immediate impact as Liverpool had a couple of chances in quick succession.
"He's obviously got something, he's a really good player, he's technically fantastic, but he's been mauled out there today by Matheus Nunes and by others, said Gary Neville in his Sky Sports podcast after the game.
Liverpool fans will rightly expect more from the German international, but he wasnt alone in not causing Citys defence adequate problems when attacking. The teams lack of energy perhaps could have been partly attributed to the level exerted against Madrid, with Conor Bradley in particular struggling to deal with Doku in the same manner that he did Vinicius Junior.
With no goals and no assists in the Premier League for Wirtz, its a large concern for Slot and his coaching staff. Its a huge drop off from the 21 goals and 23 assists in 63 Bundesliga appearances across the last two seasons.
His flexibility will help Liverpool in the long term, and when Slot decides to build the team around the playmaker, he will no doubt prove his class. However, that might not happen anytime soon as the manager tries to get the best out of all his new attacking options and attempts to get Salah back to last terms level.
