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Liverpool legend John Barnes believes Arne Slot needs to make a change with his full-backs after the international break — and that it could bring the best out of Florian Wirtz.
So far since he arrived from Bayer Leverkusen, Wirtz has been finding his feet in a new league. Slot has used him mainly as a number 10 behind either Hugo Ekitike or Alexander Isak, but he was deployed successfully off the left against Real Madrid last midweek.
Moving forward, Barnes wants to see Wirtz given a more solid platform on which to perform. And that means having players at the back more willing to sit in and not attack than perhaps the natural instinct is with the likes of Andy Robertson and Conor Bradley.
"I think Wirtz has been very good so far," Barnes told Video Gamer. "His movement and awareness have been great.
"However, Arne Slot will need to adopt a more defensive approach, and that will mean that Liverpool can’t have both full-backs attacking at the same time.
"It also means that Wirtz and the other midfield players will have to defend better in transition and protect the back four better. It’s about finding the right balance and giving time to Liverpool’s new players to adapt to a new style of play.
"It would’ve been great if they hit the ground running and continued their form from last season, but obviously things haven’t quite gone to plan recently."
Last time out, Liverpool lost to Manchester City and looked jaded after a grueling week. Moving forward, it should have — on paper at least — a more winnable set of fixtures coming up.
"Obviously, we've given ourselves a huge uphill battle, but I don't think any of the teams will really look at the league table until we're halfway through," Robertson said at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
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"That's what we've got to do, but we've got to pick up points on a more consistent basis, and then let's see where we are after Christmas time or whatever. We've just got to focus on ourselves and focus on performance levels."
"There's no point looking at the table for us," Virgil van Dijk said. "If you lose as many games as we have lost, I don't think we can look at the table at this point.
"But I have been in the game quite a long time [to know] that seasons aren't decided in November or December. It's when it comes to March, April when it starts to become very interesting, how it all shapes up up there.
"We want to be there, but there's a long way to go and a lot of hard work to be put in."
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