{"id":325163,"date":"2025-12-03T15:01:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325163\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T15:01:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T15:01:09","slug":"florian-wirtz-explains-why-freedom-from-slot-benefits-liverpool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/325163\/","title":{"rendered":"Florian Wirtz Explains Why \u201cFreedom\u201d From Slot Benefits Liverpool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florian Wirtz<\/a> has spoken about how the \u201cfreedom\u201d given to him by Arne Slot<\/a> helped him positively influence proceedings as Liverpool beat West Ham<\/a> 2-0. <\/p>\n

Wirtz\u2019s start to life at Liverpool hasn\u2019t gone exactly as planned since his \u00a3116 million move from Bayer Leverkusen<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Against West Ham<\/a>, though, he delivered arguably his best performance yet for the Reds as he influenced play from the No. 10 position. <\/p>\n

It was not the first time Wirtz has played in the role this season, but it was the first time he looked properly comfortable to dictate the team\u2019s play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really happy to start, because I was out for two games. I was happy the manager decided to play me,\u201d the German told Liverpoolfc.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"LONDON,<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to give my best and to help to turn it around that we start to win games again. I\u2019m happy that I could give my best to this.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was playing more as a No. 10, I had the freedom to go to free spaces and create an overload. I tried to just make the possession better, tried to create chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had also one or two chances where I could score but I\u2019m a bit unlucky at the moment, so I\u2019ll keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing an attacking midfielder with such freedom isn\u2019t always possible in the Premier League<\/a>; earlier in the season, Wirtz was being blamed for Liverpool being so open in midfield.<\/p>\n

\"MANCHESTER,<\/p>\n

However, with Dominik Szoboszlai<\/a> to his right instead of Mo Salah<\/a>, plus Joe Gomez<\/a> at right-back and a hard-working performance from Cody Gakpo<\/a>, the Reds looked more solid against West Ham<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Wirtz added: \u201cI\u2019m happy that I made a good game and could help the team to win. Everything else [in terms of goals and assists] will come soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t put too much pressure on myself because I know what I can do on the pitch. And when I can help the team win like this, I\u2019m also happy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know [if it\u2019s my best performance for Liverpool so far], maybe other people have to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019m just happy we won and I could contribute something to the performance. I\u2019m happy that I could make my mark.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florian Wirtz has spoken about how the \u201cfreedom\u201d given to him by Arne Slot helped him positively influence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325164,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,24181,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-325163","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-florian-wirtz","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}