By the time you notice Florian Wirtz, it is often too late. Here is a free tip to any opposition midfielders and defenders: he is never just minding his business.
He is not just finding space but creating it, manoeuvring you just where he wants you, making you dismantle yourself. He is the only ghost you actually need to be scared of.
That would be a phenomenally desirable skill in itself, but then there’s the progressive passing and chance creation, the ability to bamboozle opponents and extricate himself from impossible situations.
Most strikers would be jealous of his finishing ability. As an attacking midfielder, there is no obvious flaw in his game. Oh, and he has just turned 22.
Why do Liverpool want Florian Wirtz?
All this considered, it is not hard to understand why Liverpool and Bayern Munich are considering offering Wirtz an estimated £300m package, including a £126m transfer fee.
This is one of the most talented prospects in football, the 2023-24 Bundesliga Player of the Season in an invincible Bayer Leverkusen side which also won the DFB Pokal and reached the Europa League final.
This season was his first in the Champions League, where he scored six goals in eight games, alongside surpassing 10 league goals and assists for the second successive campaign (10 and 13 in 2024-25, 11 and 12 in 2023-24). He also scored six international goals and got three more assists across 13 starts in 2024.
And yet somehow the macro numbers are the least impressive thing about him.
Among attacking midfielders and wingers in this season’s Bundesliga, he is in the 99th percentile for passes, through balls and progressive passes completed per 90 minutes, made the second-most assists.
He was in the 97th percentile for successful take-ons per 90 (3.14), while also ranking high for progressive carries and carrying distance.
There are few better people at moving the ball up the pitch anywhere, either at his feet or not, especially at the rate he manages it.
“Florian is just a huge asset for this team with his care-free nature,” Hansi Flick said when Germany head coach.
“He’s simply an outstanding technician, loves to play, is very creative, has a good shot, runs hard and is quick. He’s the full package.”
An obvious Premier League comparator is Cole Palmer, albeit right-footed. He has even had his own “chippy chips” moment, going viral for declaring his favourite food is “normal potatoes” in a national team clip. Also like Palmer, he still doesn’t get why everyone finds it so funny.
“What I do is mostly very spontaneous because it appears to be the best solution in that situation,” Wirtz told Werkself Magazin. “But sometimes I suspect or know beforehand what the opponent will do, and then it’s easier to do my own tricks because I can see how the opponents move and when they’ll dive in.
“It’s one of my strengths that sometimes I know in advance what will happen — and then I can concentrate on the solution, so that I anticipate the situation and create an advantage.
“I’ve learned to watch what the others do and then make the best decision. You always have to be prepared to learn if you want to become a better player.”
How could Liverpool line up with Florian Wirtz?
And there is no question he would have to learn if he joined Liverpool – learn to thrive in a system not built around him, learn to adapt to the Premier League, learn the differences between Xabi Alonso’s and Arne Slot’s systems.
Equally, there is little doubt he is capable of doing all those things, helped by the imminent arrival of his Leverkusen teammate Jeremie Frimpong.
For Liverpool, he would provide an improvement on and alternative to Dominik Szoboszlai through the centre, with the ability to play on the left and right wing, alternating through matches as Slot tends to.
But most crucially he would provide a pillar of a new generation of superstars at Anfield, the basis for a new dynasty before the current one is done winning.
Liverpool’s recent success has been almost entirely built upon having the best goalkeeper, centre-back, right-back and right-winger in the Premier League.
The supporting cast has been interchangeable, but it has been able to be. This is clearly how Michael Edwards believes a great squad is constructed – from the foundations up. There are few better foundational players anywhere in the world than Wirtz.
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