Arne Slot has new Liverpool problem to solve before Florian Wirtz injury update

Liverpool is likely to be without Florian Wirtz for another game when it takes on Wolves, and Arne Slot needs to come up with another solution to an emerging problem

Arne Slot and Florian Wirtz shake hands during the Premier League game between Liverpool and Newcastle(Image: Paul ELLIS / AFP via Getty Images)

When you spend $157 million (£116 million) on a player, it is fair to assume that they will be pretty central to the plan. But what about when Liverpool is without Florian Wirtz?

So far, this season has felt like a game of whack-a-mole: as soon as Liverpool has solved one problem, another one pops up somewhere else. And Wirtz is the latest example.

There was a period in which Liverpool was conceding from every attack that it faced, before it then shored things up only to become desperately boring. Then, just when Wirtz was leading the charge in getting the balance right, he is now missing.

Against Nottingham Forest, when he dropped out last minute, Liverpool was terrible, even if it won. It was much better — though still with plenty of improvements to do — against West Ham, but lacked an attacking spark in open play.

Wirtz is not expected to play against Wolves on Tuesday, and if he does miss out, then someone else will have to step up. Though Liverpool scored five times against West Ham last time out, it was largely uninspiring.

"I was just standing around your colleagues, and people said, ‘Well played, well played’. I said, ‘In my opinion, we’ve played better this season'," Arne Slot admitted.

Liverpool midfielder Florian Wirtz has picked up a back injury(Image: Lewis Storey/Getty Images)

"We played OK to good — so, we were OK to good, but it wasn’t the best game of the season. We’ve played better when we’ve lost [and] we’ve played better when we conceded set-pieces."

Liverpool was clinical — a good thing, undoubtedly — but it needed to score those chances from corners because it lost control in the second half. If it didn't have such a lead, the result could have been very different.

Without Wirtz, Slot needed his wingers, Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah, to step up. Neither was as bad as at the City Ground, but neither really took the game by the scruff of the neck either.

Salah certainly didn't in open play, though his set-piece deliveries were excellent; Gakpo's deficiencies, meanwhile, were masked somewhat by his goal, which took a hefty deflection. Neither played especially well.

Everything in recent times, when Wirtz has really come to life, has been channeled through the German. Against Sunderland, it was notable that even Salah — usually keen to be the main man — looked for him at the earliest opportunity.

Wirtz is set to be missing at Wolves, and he might be out for longer than that. And even in the future, he is not going to be able to play in every single minute of every single game.

So, as a result, Liverpool needs to answer another question. It has found stability at the back (in the main) in recent weeks, and on Saturday, it continued a real upturn in fortunes when it comes to scoring from set-pieces.

What is the plan from open play when Wirtz is absent, though? That is the next conundrum for Slot to solve, and against Wolves is likely to be the first chance to show it.