Florian Wirtz: Liverpool playmaker creates history vs Brentford to silence critics

Florian Wirtz did what no player has done in the Premier League in more than two years when helping Liverpool beat the previously undefeated Brentford on Saturday afternoon.

Much has been made and said of Florian Wirtz’s slow start to the season. The German playmaker has looked devoid of confidence this term, and dropped back-to-back stinkers either side of the international break against Manchester City and Bournemouth.

However, Andoni Iraola has stuck by the £116m man and continued to select Wirtz in his starting elevens, much to the dismay of pundit Jamie Carragher who has repeatedly called for Wirtz to be dropped.

On Saturday, Iraola’s belief in Wirtz was justified with the German helping Liverpool defeat Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium, Entering the contest, Brentford were just one of two undefeated teams in the Premier League, with Man City the other.

The Bees were reduced to 10 men on the stroke of half time, and very late on, that number dropped to nine.

Nevertheless, Wirtz enjoyed arguably his best display of the season so far and created chance after chance at will.

In fact, Wirtz’s mark of nine chances created was the most any player has created in a Premier League game for over two years.

The last player to create nine chances in an EPL match was Dejan Kulusevski for Tottenham against Manchester United in September, 2024.

Furthermore, all of the chances were created in open play. The last player to create nine chances without the aid of set pieces was Sadio Mane for Liverpool versus Burnley in 2021.

The last player to create nine or more open-play chances in an away Premier League game was Samir Nasri for Arsenal versus Tottenham way back in 2011.

Florian Wirtz silences Jamie Carragher

As mentioned, Reds icon Carragher has been amongst the most vocal critics of Wirtz this season.

Speaking after Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to City last time out in the Premier League, Carragher said: “Liverpool have got three £100m+ players, and they’re not all starting together; it’s early in the season, I get that.

“But Liverpool have paid top dollar, and they’re getting nowhere near what they should be getting. I’m going to come back to Florian Wirtz. I was critical of him after the last game (against Bournemouth).

“Now I was then criticised by a lot of supporters for putting a negative slant on it when Liverpool had a game, and everyone was happy.

“But what I did say is it almost feels like the last hope: could Jurgen Klopp get his arm around him when he goes away with Germany? He played really well in the game, scored and played well.

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“But he’s come here today, and I’m thinking as a Liverpool fan, no Isak, no Gakpo, our two best attackers this season. We need Barcola, and we need Wirtz to step up and help [Victor] Munoz, help [Lewis] Koumas at the top end of the pitch.

“Koumas and Munoz were better than the two £100m players. Now that can’t be right. It’s just not right. And it wasn’t even a decision to make for anyone who was in this stadium today who was coming off for Liverpool when they went down to 10 men (Wirtz was substituted).

“There’s got to be a rejig of the midfield because what Florian Wirtz is giving Liverpool right now is nowhere near enough.

“People were critical of me for being critical after the Bournemouth game. He’s played 55–60 games for Liverpool. He shouldn’t be in the Liverpool team right now.”

Not only did Wirtz create chances for fun and grab an assist against Brentford, but he also led the team in running stats yet again.

Wirtz clocked up 13.4km to lead the Reds, with his mark of 75.5km across the season almost 10km more than Liverpool’s next best (Milos Kerkez – 65.7km).

In terms of average distance covered per 90 minutes from regular starters, Wirtz’s mark of 12.2km places him top of the tree at Anfield, comfortably ahead of Alexis Mac Allister (11.4km per 90 minutes) in second.