Andy Robertson: Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz should not be judged on numbers alone

Liverpool defender Andy Robertson insists £100million signing Florian Wirtz should not be judged on numbers alone.

The Germany international has come under scrutiny for not producing the form which made him Bundesliga player of the year at the age of 21 in Bayer Leverkusen’s title-winning season of 2023-24 and one of Europe’s hottest prospects.

He has had his struggles assimilating himself into Arne Slot’s team but remains the Premier League leader in terms of chances created (29), open-play chances created (26) and expected assists (3.0).

Wirtz started to show flashes of a return to his best with two assists in the 5-1 Champions League victory over Eintracht Frankfurt on his first return to Germany since leaving in the summer.

“Players around him helped him a lot – Curtis Jones was outstanding – and I thought the three midfielders helped us gain the momentum and keep the ball.

“Flo has been really good since he came here. People focus on numbers of goals and assists but at times it’s unfair as he’s created a hell of a lot of chances.

“Some of the chances he created (against Frankfurt) ended up in an assist. Hopefully he can take a lot from this performance.”

Victory in Germany ended a run of four successive defeats and marked a significant departure for Slot, who opted to play two strikers in Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike, who scored the opening goal.

A groin problem for £125m British-record signing Isak is likely to deny him that option at Brentford on Saturday.

“It changed it, obviously. We had more players centrally and I thought it worked really well, Alex and Hugo played really well first half and then Fed (Federico Chiesa) and Hugo linked up well in the second half,” added Robertson.

“It’s a different option for us and you always need different options, different formations, different people to come in to be able to play and we did that.

“The two of them fed off each other quite well and then it is about the boys working around them and I thought we did that really well.”

Something else they improved on was set-pieces, a constant cause of irritation for Slot this season at both ends of the pitch.

Centre-backs Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate both scored from corners shortly before half-time to open up a two-goal cushion, while defensively they were not troubled by their hosts.

“We’ve conceded a few set-pieces and that has been hugely disappointing and we have to get better at that and we’ve probably not scored as many as we should with the deliveries we’ve had,” said Robertson.

“Thankfully it paid off: the deliveries were spot on, the blocks were spot on and the runners were spot on and when you get the three things right you give yourself a hell of a chance to score and the two big lads put us 3-1 up at a crucial time and we went into cruise control after that and controlled the game.”