Florian Wirtz admission speaks volumes as Liverpool star ‘finally’ ends drought

Florian Wirtz provided two assists as Liverpool thrashed Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 in the Champions League on Wednesday night, with the midfielder ending his wait for a goal contribution

Florian Wirtz has opened up on his satisfaction at finally breaking his goal contribution drought for Liverpool. The Germany star provided two assists as the Reds demolished Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 on Wednesday evening.

The 22-year-old had set up a goal on his debut for the club – in the Community Shield against Crystal Palace – but had been unable to add to that single goal contribution in either the Premier League or Champions League before Liverpool’s visit to Frankfurt.

However, the midfielder ended his barren spell in spectacular style back on home soil, initially delivering a low cross for Cody Gakpo in the second period before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai from the edge of the area.

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The club’s £116m summer arrival from Bayer Leverkusen was thrilled to finally register another goal contribution. Yet, while accepting blame for Frankfurt’s opening goal, he also maintained that he can still deliver considerably more for Liverpool.

“I’ve never conducted an interview so soon after a match,” Wirtz told DAZN following the final whistle. “If I recall correctly, we were 1-0 down.

“We got back into it and turned the game around. In the first half, I made it hard for myself getting into good spaces. And then I was unfortunate to lose the ball before we conceded, but on the whole it was okay. I tried to get into better spaces during the second half.

“I know that I can do much, much more. I think the second half was really good, and from everyone else, too. I’m satisfied that we’ve won and that I finally have a goal involvement.”

Wirtz has now clocked up 12 appearances for Liverpool and, while he’s still yet to find the back of the net, he has provided three assists. He’ll be hoping to keep his starting spot for Sunday’s match against Brentford – after being used only as a substitute in the Reds’ last two Premier League games against Chelsea and Manchester United.

Liverpool’s win against Frankfurt was their first since Carabao Cup success at home to Southampton in September. They had lost four straight matches going into Wednesday’s trip to Germany, but Slot’s men responded in the best possible way and recorded a much-needed victory.

“I saw a lot of similarities in the last few weeks, in the last few games we played,” Slot said post-match. “I also saw some differences. The similarities were that we already create a few chances before we conceded the first one and the first chance we conceded was usually a goal.

“In the end it turned out to be the only chance we conceded. Why was that? Because we went 3-1 up and so then it’s easier to control the game than when you’re 1-0 down all the time.

“I’ve said here a few times telling you guys how important set-pieces are, how important the balance at set-pieces is. Now we were able to score two so you go 3-1 up at half-time because you score two set-pieces.

“That is a big, big, big difference and you go in at half-time at 1-1 with still the same amount of chances, but people will judge us definitely differently when you don’t score them. The biggest exception for me compared to the other games we’ve played was the playing style of our opponent.

“We got some energy out of the moments we could press them, which in the last four or five games we’ve played we were not able to press the opponent – because the ball wasn’t on the ground, it was in the air.”

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