The story behind Wirtz’s first Premier League goal

Florian Wirtz has finally scored his first goal of this Premier League season, albeit rather late in the day. This is partly down to two of his team-mates – and may well lead to a change of manager.

It wasn’t as though Alisson ran all the way into the opposition’s half and Adoni Iraola sprinted along the touchline, as Oliver Glasner had done the day before during Nottingham’s victory over Manchester City. Yet all Liverpool fans must have felt a certain sense of relief when Florian Wirtz celebrated in the 54th minute on Sunday – for, believe it or not, an own goal!

On matchday ten, the former Leverkusen player finally ended his goal drought, which had taken on some rather bizarre twists along the way, as goals had been disallowed or ruled as own goals. With 17 shots on goal – 15 of them inside the opposition’s penalty area – one shot hitting the woodwork and an xGoals value of 1.82, it was certainly high time.

The fact that the opposition were Crystal Palace – currently bottom of the Premier League – and are likely to part ways once again with Glasner’s successor, Pierre Sage, following their 1–3 home defeat, was of no concern to Wirtz. Rather, he was delighted that he and two team-mates had executed the manager’s instructions to the letter when he scored from Bradley Barcola’s assist.

Iraola draws attention to a detail in Wirtz’s goal

“It was a brilliant pass to Bradley into the space. The manager kept telling us to get into the penalty area, and I think there were three of us there,” Wirtz explained to Sky Sports. “Luckily, the ball came to me and I was able to score.”

Adoni Iraola himself was keen to highlight another detail. When asked about Alexander Isak’s goal that made it 3–0, he preferred to focus on Isak’s run leading up to Wirtz’s goal, “which I liked even better”. Because: “He attacks the near post very well and leaves space behind him so that Florian can move into it.”

Wirtz knew how to make the most of the space that opened up. “I’m delighted for him because he’s had a lot of bad luck in the league,” said Iraola. “He helped us today; overall, it was a very good performance from him.” Liverpool, who “definitely needed” the win following their 2–3 slip-up at Fenerbahçe midweek (Iraola), go into the international break in fourth place in the table and having equalled a club record: five away games, 13 points.