Andoni Iraola Defends Florian Wirtz's Impact at Liverpool

Andoni Iraola isn’t interested in the numbers. Not with Florian Wirtz.

The Liverpool manager knows the price tag, knows the scrutiny, knows the one assist and zero Premier League goals are already being thrown around as a stick to beat his £116m playmaker with. He just doesn’t accept that the story of Wirtz can be told through a spreadsheet.

Wirtz was at the heart of Liverpool’s win over Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, another big European night in which the 23-year-old looked far more like the player who illuminated last season’s Champions League run than the one being accused of losing the ball too often in domestic games. Iraola’s view is simple: judge the performance, not the column of stats.

“Flo played very well against Atlético Madrid and I also think he has been unlucky,” Iraola said, pointing back to the disallowed goal at Nottingham Forest, when VAR cut short what had looked like a breakthrough moment. The ball hit the net, the celebration started, the replays rolled, and then it was gone. On another day, it stands, the narrative shifts and the conversation around him feels very different.

The same goes for the chances he has created that Liverpool have failed to finish. Wirtz has threaded passes into dangerous areas, opened up defences, tilted games in Liverpool’s favour. The final touch has not always come from a teammate. That, Iraola argues, is exactly why you cannot reduce a creative fulcrum to his direct goal return.

In his mind, the job description is broader.

Whether the striker scores or not is secondary. The question he keeps coming back to is blunt: does Wirtz help Liverpool play well? Iraola’s answer is yes. If the team functions, if the patterns click and the pressure builds, the goals will arrive from somewhere – midfielders, wingers, full-backs arriving late. He does not care whose name appears on the scoreboard as long as the collective is humming.

That view puts Wirtz right at the centre of Liverpool’s attacking rebuild. The forward line around him has shifted, the wingers in particular. Bradley Barcola and Victor Muñoz offer new angles, new runs, new spaces for Wirtz to exploit. Against Atlético, he slid an excellent chance into Barcola’s path, a glimpse of the combinations Iraola expects to see more often as the relationships sharpen.

There is an acceptance that this takes time. Wirtz has to learn where Muñoz wants the ball, how Barcola shapes his run, which pockets they like to receive in. Iraola sees that process already under way. Barcola is only two games into his Liverpool career and yet the link with Wirtz is beginning to show, little one-twos and shared ideas appearing in tight spaces.

The criticism of Wirtz for conceding possession jars with the way Iraola wants his side to play. Risk is part of the role. The manager is not asking for safe passes and tidy numbers; he is asking for incision. A player tasked with breaking lines and playing on the edge will inevitably lose the ball at times. The trade-off, in Iraola’s mind, is worth it if Wirtz keeps dragging Liverpool into dangerous areas.

That is why the head coach refuses to be drawn into the obsession with assists and goals. Modern football, he says, bombards players with targets and metrics – you must score, you must assist, you must hit certain figures. He is pushing back against that noise. For him, the responsibility on Wirtz is different: be the reference point, speed up the attacks, connect the new weapons in wide areas.

Liverpool’s midfielders stepped up with the goals “the other day”, as Iraola put it, and he sounded perfectly content with that. It underlined his broader point. If the team is functioning, if Wirtz is helping them play well, the finishing touch will always belong to someone. It doesn’t have to be the £116m man.

What Iraola is banking on now is that as Wirtz’s understanding with Barcola and Muñoz deepens, the numbers will follow naturally. The influence is already there in the flow of Liverpool’s play. The manager is convinced the end product will catch up.