There was no Florian Wirtz in the Liverpool starting side on Saturday evening – and Arne Slot has explained why he dropped the German for the Chelsea clash
Liverpool paid a small fortune for Florian Wirtz – but he was nowhere to be seen during one of their biggest games of the season so far.
Wirtz, 22, has struggled to settle to live at Liverpool after Arne Slot forked over £116million for his services. “We play a lot of games,” Slot explained before kick-off.
“If you play a lot of games, you usually change one or two players. We try to pick the players based on the games. You can’t compare the playing style of Palace to the style of Chelsea.”
Jamie Redknapp leapt to the defence of the struggling star in the Sky Sports studio: “”Everyone’s judging [Florian Wirtz] way too early. Gravenberch is a great example – it took him a year, and now we’re all talking about him as one of the best players in the world.
“Give him time; it can happen.”
Liverpool lost their first game of the season against Crystal Palace last weekend – and followed that up with a defeat to Galatasaray in the Champions League.
The Reds were dealt a huge injury blow in the latter – losing Alisson. Slot continued: “We don’t have to do anything different when he or Alisson is in goal.
“What we have to do is protect the goalkeeper – Alisson was more involved in the last games that I would have liked. He’s an experienced goalkeeper, so he’ll be fine.”
The Reds weren’t the only side with injury issues – and Enzo Maresca, who was missing nine first-team stars explained:””It’s nice. You get to learn how to manage these kind of moments and it’s good to learn.
“We have nine players out – two or three players are still carrying small problems. But they’re doing fantastically to be there on the pitch.
“Let’s hope today can be a good day for Chelsea, for everyone.”
#Reason #Arne #Slot #dropped #Florian #Wirtz #Liverpools #crunch #clash #Chelsea
