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What is it about former Manchester United players and tedious Liverpool analysis? Rio Ferdinand still has some way to go to match Gary Neville's lamentable prediction success rate, but he is on the right track.
In his latest contribution to the discourse, Ferdinand has decided that he's cracked the code to Liverpool's problems. Never mind the fact that Arne Slot started the season with seven straight wins and sits one point off the top of the table, the last 10 days obviously mean the Reds are in full-blown crisis.
In fairness, Slot does have issues that need to be addressed, and even the title-holders are not immune from criticism. But while the likes of Mohamed Salah can come under legitimate scrutiny, and Milos Kerkez is certainly still yet to really settle in, the ex Man Utd defender has misdiagnosed the problem.
Like many pundits, Ferdinand has honed in on Florian Wirtz as his scapegoat of choice. While nobody is denying that Liverpool would have hoped for a more impactful start to life at Anfield for the $156 million man, his struggles are very much a symptom rather than a cause.
Naturally, there are legitimate questions to be asked. Slot himself withdrew Wirtz from the starting XI against Chelsea, restoring last season's midfield of Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Alexis Mac Allister.
But nobody who watched that first half could claim that Liverpool's problems were magically solved. Indeed, the Reds looked better when Wirtz was introduced at the break.
It's hard to see how that reconciles with Ferdinand's analysis. He blames Wirtz for a lack of balance.
"I think balance in their team is the issue," Ferdinand claimed on his Rio Presents Podcast. "That’s the key thing, finding the right balance.
"They’ve gone from having three midfielders. Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, and Mac Allister are all good grafters, all get around the pitch, all can cover for other people and make big sacrifices in their own game for other players.
"Whereas, like you say, with Wirtz coming in now, he ain’t scoring, he ain’t really assisting, he’s not really impacting the games, he’s working his nuts off, but he ain’t having the impact that they probably anticipated. And like you said, with all the attacking players on the show, they’re starting to get picked out."
The simplest explanation is not always the best. Yes, Liverpool has looked more open, and that has coincided with the arrival of Wirtz, but one is not the cause of the other.
Again, this is proved most of all by Liverpool's continuing issues when Wirtz is not on the pitch. Moreover, as Ferdinand himself references, Wirtz is working incredibly hard off the ball.
While Slot did not bring him in to be a defensive workhorse, he is doing more than enough out of possession to pull his weight in the midfield. If anything, Liverpool should be looking to find a way to free him from some of those responsibilities.
And if there is any balance issue, it lies with Salah. Liverpool has long since made a conscious choice to allow the Egyptian a lighter pressing load, but that's more pronounced when he is not matching his usual high standards of output.
Even the defensive buildup concerns could be put down to balance, in the sense that Liverpool does not have enough of its creativity and incision situated close to its own goal. Ibrahima Konate's pedestrian approach to playing out is harming build-up, especially with no Trent Alexander-Arnold to fire the ball into midfield or over the top.
But none of this comes back to Wirtz. Far from being the root cause of Liverpool's problems, he stands to be the biggest beneficiary once Slot can set the issues right.
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