GERMANY boss Julian Nagelsmann has blamed Florian Wirtz’s Liverpool team-mates for his poor form – saying they should start converting the chances he makes.
Playmaker Wirtz, a £116million signing from Bayer Leverkusen, has yet to register a goal or assist in 11 Premier League games for the Reds.
But Nagelsmann reckons the problem is that his Kop pals “don’t like to shoot the ball in”.
Wirtz, 22, was called up for Germany’s World Cup qualifiers with Luxembourg and Slovakia.
Nagelsmann said: “We all know what he’s capable of.
“And it’s perfectly normal for a player of his age to go through a bit of a dip in form.
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“We can’t expect him to perform at the same level for three years straight.
“Instead, we all need to support him a little bit so that he can clear his head here, and then maybe Liverpool could also help him out by scoring some of the chances he creates.
“That would be one idea, because he does not create few chances, it’s just that they somehow don’t like to shoot the ball in.”
While Wirtz has been blanking in the league this season, his underlying numbers suggest he should have at least one goal or assist to his name.
He has taken 12 shots for an overall Expected Goals value of 1.3xG, while he has also created 16 chances for an Expected Assists value of 1.19xG.
Only three players at rival clubs in the English top flight; David Brooks (16), Anthony Gordon (14) and Yeremy Pino (12), have taken as many or more shots than Wirtz without scoring.
Meanwhile, only Bukayo Saka has created more chances (17) without an assist.
At Liverpool, Wirtz has created the joint-third most chances, behind Cody Gakpo (21) and Mohamed Salah (20), and had the joint-fifth most shots behind Gakpo (27), Salah (25), Dominik Szoboszlai (21) and Hugo Ekitike (16).
Those numbers are still lower than one might expect from what was the Premier League’s record transfer at the time of purchase – with Alexander Isak‘s £130m move from Newcastle eclipsing the figure – but it shows his blank stats sheet does not tell us the whole truth.
Wirtz did register an assist in the Community Shield defeat to Crystal Palace.
He has also appeared more comfortable in the Champions League, with two assists to his name – both picked up during the away win at Eintracht Frankfurt.
International duty has also seen Wirtz get on the scoresheet against Northern Ireland during the September break.
Liverpool have a kinder run of fixtures after the international break, with three of their next five league games coming against teams in the bottom five.
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