Florian Wirtz is increasingly gaining momentum in Liverpool—even if Arne Slot would prefer to see him on the pitch less often.
It almost got lost in the turbulent final stages: as Liverpool desperately tried to hold on to a 2-1 lead at Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, Florian Wirtz limped off the pitch. It was already the tenth minute of stoppage time when 18-year-old Trey Nyoni replaced him.
However, there was no cause for concern about this substitution. Wirtz had merely suffered a cramp, Arne Slot clarified three days later. “Florian is okay.” The former Leverkusen player will also be available to his coach for Friday’s home game against bottom-of-the-table Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Slot was not surprised that Wirtz, who had previously scored his first goal in the Premier League, was exhausted against Spurs. “He is adapting better and better to the Premier League, but he is another example of a player who needs to play a lot. In an ideal world, I would rest him more often.”
Because the Reds are far from that just before Christmas, Slot is not only consciously taking a risk with Wirtz. “That’s the extra problem you get with injuries,” he admitted at his press conference on Tuesday, saying that the many absences automatically increase the risk of injury for the fit players.
Endo not an option – Ekitiké “needs to get stronger”
But: “Most of our injuries have nothing to do with overuse,” Slot emphasized, referring primarily to Alexander Isak, who will be out for months after Micky van de Ven’s rough tackle on Sunday, but also to Wataru Endo. The former Stuttgart player will miss at least the Wolves game due to an ankle injury, and possibly longer, but has not played a major role this season so far.
It is still unclear whether Cody Gakpo and right-back Conor Bradley, who was injured against Tottenham, will be fit in time for the Wolves game. Slot put the chances for both at 50 percent. Joe Gomez is out again.
Up front, Hugo Ekitiké is expected to lead the line once again, especially with Isak out. Ekitiké has scored five goals in his last three league appearances and is the most impressive of the many summer signings (16 games, eight goals, one assist). Nevertheless, Slot also sees room for improvement for the former Frankfurt player. “He needs to get even stronger,” he says. “The biggest area for improvement: he has adapted to the Premier League, but he can become outstanding physically. He’s working very hard on that.”