After the 3-0 defeat at Manchester City, Florian Wirtz summed up well what went wrong in Liverpool’s game. A more detailed look does not exactly flatter Arne Slot. Will the mocking chants against Wirtz become the motto of the season?
Much has been written this season about how much more pragmatic Pep Guardiola’s play has been in his tenth year at Manchester City. In Sunday’s Premier League top match against Liverpool FC, his team did things that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, such as defending deep and ignoring possession statistics. But ManCity 2025/26 is still a Guardiola team. The goal that made it 1-0, set up with 19 passes from their own penalty area to the opponent’s and finished with a dream header from Erling Haaland, left a lasting impression on the Catalan’s anniversary, a picture that could not have been more fitting for his 1000th competitive game as a coach. And even before and after that, ManCity was much more reminiscent of the ManCity of summer 2024 than the one that had been so pitifully easy to beat at times last year. You only had to listen to Florian Wirtz to realize that.
“Everyone knows City’s qualities, they move the ball around very well,” Liverpool’s new signing explained after the 3-0 defeat on Sky, although all that knowledge did not help the Reds. Wirtz’s honest analysis: “We just didn’t manage to disrupt them today, then get into good transition moments and become dangerous ourselves.”
Did Wirtz expect to settle in more quickly? “Yes, but…”
After he and his teammates had been praised for their tenacity, especially after the 1-0 win against Real Madrid, the 22-year-old now stated: “We just weren’t aggressive enough in the tackles and didn’t get into the pressing game we had planned.”
Wirtz, who started on the left again, was unable to make an impact, unlike against Real, and, like his teammates, who were no less weak, faded before the break. When he was substituted in the 82nd minute, Man City fans taunted him, chanting “What a waste of money” – as many other opposing fans have done this season – after the €125 million man.
When asked whether his acclimatization to Liverpool and England was taking longer than he had expected, Wirtz replied with a “yes, but” – even after 693 Premier League minutes, he has yet to score a point (xGoals: 1.3; xAssists: 1.19). “Yes, but I’m very happy to be here. I’m getting my playing time and my chances on the pitch.” He now knows “what to expect, so I don’t need to keep mentioning” the difference between the Bundesliga and the Premier League.
Liverpool’s problems go far beyond Wirtz
The problems at Liverpool, currently eighth in the table, go far beyond Wirtz anyway. The even more expensive Alexander Isak, who didn’t even come on as a substitute on Sunday, continues to struggle to settle in, and coach Arne Slot keeps making mistakes, unlike in the almost flawless championship season.
Against the Citizens, his team was caught off guard by, among other things, the fact that they repeatedly overloaded Liverpool’s right side of defense with the very offensive left-back Nico O’Reilly, which is why Conor Bradley was never able to get a grip on the outstanding Jeremy Doku. Mohamed Salah left the right-back unmarked so often that one had to wonder whether he hadn’t listened to Slot enough or whether Slot hadn’t paid enough attention to Guardiola.
“It’s easy for the players to win their tackles when the match plan and tactics are working, which was the case against Villa and Madrid,” Slot explained self-critically: “This time, we had great difficulty with them bringing so many players into midfield. Then it was difficult for some of our players to make the right decisions.”
After the harsh reality check at the Etihad (“Before the break, they were better than us in all areas”), Slot wrote off the title race, at least for the time being. After the international break, he and his team urgently need to work on ensuring that “What a waste of money” does not become the headline for Liverpool’s season.
