Two goals and an assist in three games for Klopp’s Germany, two goals in 15 for Liverpool: why the €125m man only looks free in white
Florian Wirtz looks like a different player when he pulls on a Germany shirt. Under Jurgen Klopp he has two goals and an assist in three games since October, after three assists at the World Cup. For Liverpool this season, he has two goals and five assists in 15 matches.
That gap is the most talked-about problem at Liverpool. Wirtz arrived from Bayer Leverkusen in a €125m deal in 2025, beating Manchester City and Real Madrid to his signature, after scoring 57 goals and making 65 assists in 197 games in Germany. In 64 games for Liverpool, he has nine goals and 15 assists.
He impressed again for his country this week, and the debate in Germany has moved on from whether he is good enough to whether Liverpool know how to use him.
Why does Wirtz play better for Germany?
Part of it is the man in charge. Klopp has backed Wirtz in public since he took the Germany job, and the team is built to get him on the ball between the lines with runners ahead of him. He is the creative centre of that side, not one of several stars competing for the same space.
Marcel Reif, the veteran German commentator, put it bluntly on BILD’s Reif ist Live. He said Wirtz needs a coach who treats him as untouchable and team-mates who say “It’s great to have Flo with us”. He added: “It’s not that he’s lost any of his technical ability. It’s just that he needs to feel comfortable, to feel that everyone is looking out for him.”
What is going wrong at Liverpool?
Things have looked a little better under Andoni Iraola than they did last season, but the pattern is still there. Liverpool’s attack is crowded with expensive talent: Alexander Isak up front, Bradley Barcola and Cody Gakpo out wide. Wirtz often ends up waiting for the ball rather than running the game.
The Premier League is also less patient with a player like him. In the Bundesliga, Leverkusen built every attack through Wirtz. In England, games are quicker and more physical in midfield, and a No.10 who needs time on the ball has to fight harder to find it.
Signs of life
There are positives. He scored his first league goal of the season in the 3-1 win at Crystal Palace, sweeping in first time from Barcola’s cut-back, and his old Leverkusen team-mate Kai Havertz has hit back at critics, saying people who doubt Wirtz “don’t watch the games”.
Should Liverpool build the team around Wirtz?
Our view: yes, at least for the rest of this season. Liverpool paid €125m for a player who makes everyone around him better when the team is set up for him. Getting a fraction of that is the worst outcome, and selling him at a loss would be worse still.
That does not mean dropping Isak or Barcola. It means giving Wirtz a clear central role, a settled position behind the striker and the freedom to drift, the way Germany do. Iraola has shown he can adapt; this is the next test.
If Liverpool cannot make it work, Reif’s warning is worth remembering: players like Wirtz do not stay unhappy for long. The talent has not gone anywhere, as his Germany form proves. It is up to Liverpool to bring it out. You can see how he fitted into the side at Selhurst Park in our Crystal Palace 1-3 Liverpool report, and in our Liverpool predicted lineup vs Crystal Palace.