5 days ago
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Liverpool legend Sammy Lee says Arne Slot has found another Roberto Firmino in one of his summer signings, who came to life against West Ham United last weekend.
Florian Wirtz was an impressive performer at the London Stadium, putting in arguably his best half of football since arriving from Bayer Leverkusen for a fee that could reach $157 million (£116 million). He was a creative hub for Liverpool, especially in the first half, with Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo securing the points after the break.
"[Wirtz was] terrific from minute one," Lee said on the official Liverpool FC podcast. "I thought he was excellent. Dare I say it, he reminded me of Firmino.
"He was like the glue in between the midfield and attack. He got into some fantastic little spaces in between the lines, very difficult for the opposition to pick him up.
"His little touches around the corner, his little one-twos were very cute, very clever passing, and I thought his influence was excellent.
"Again, when they talk about recruitment, that for me is a big moment because you can see the player. We have all seen the touches, but when you see it come into that and have such an effect on a Premier League game, it was fantastic."
"That is his position; he is a 10," Neil Mellor added. "He can play off the left and the right but he is a 10.
"You mentioned Bobby Firmino in those sort of pockets of space, how many times in the game — and West Ham have been working to be solid and stop the space — he finds space.
"That is what Wirtz is. The manager has got a problem because Szoboszlai has been brilliant playing higher up. Wirtz as a 10 is a world-class player so how do you fit him, Szoboszlai, Macca and Gravenberch? I don't know, but he was brilliant as a 10."
Liverpool hosts Sunderland next at Anfield in a game where Wirtz can be expected to start again.
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"We tried to create an extra midfielder and he was very important for us to find every time the extra midfielder," Slot said of him during his post-match press conference on Sunday.
"He was good when he made a dribble, he was really good in his one-touch balls, I even remember a moment when he played the ball diagonally in the 18-yard box to Cody Gakpo, which then didn't lead to a shot so no xG value.
"We had many of those moments and he was part of many of those moments, I think. A good game.
"The performance staff were constantly telling me, 'He needs to go out, he needs to go out' because he's been out for one-and-a-half, two weeks and he only trained once, so to a certain extent maybe it was a bit of risk to keep him in the team, but some situations ask for an exception and I think today was one of them."
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