David Lynch Heaps Praise on Florian Wirtz after Liverpool’s Win Over Wolves
Liverpool’s 2-1 win at Wolves carried the feel of something both timely and telling. Timely, because Arne Slot’s side have been clawing their way back from a wretched October and November, telling, because Florian Wirtz’s first Liverpool goal was not simply a headline moment, it was a data point in a wider argument about patience, fit, and intent.
The Reds’ title defence has been underwhelming by their own standards. Slot, who delivered the Premier League crown in his debut season last year, has found the sequel far trickier. Sitting 4th in the table after a dispiriting autumn run, the narrative around Liverpool has been noisy, and often reductive. Yet the recent seven match unbeaten stretch, including four straight wins over Inter Milan, Brighton, Tottenham Hotspur and Wolves, has restored a degree of perspective.
Wirtz’s trajectory sits squarely within that recalibration. On the latest Anfield Index podcast, David Lynch, who spoke to Dave Davis, offered a measured assessment, grounded in detail and devoid of knee jerk revisionism.
Wirtz’s Performance vs Wolves
Lynch’s view on Wirtz was unequivocal, and worth sitting with:
“I really think that we’re starting to see the real Florian Wirtz now and he has never been as bad as people have made out. There have been some really good performances from him.”
That line lands harder when placed against the backdrop of a £200m investment, shared across Wirtz and Ekitike, and the expectation that accompanied it. Wirtz was recruited to be a connective force, an attacking metronome who lifts others, and finishes enough moves himself to make the system hum. For weeks, the critique was that the touches were tidy, the ideas bright, but the decisive stroke absent. Lynch acknowledged that too:
“He has just lacked that end product a little bit, but he’s definitely had that in the last few games and I thought he was the best player on the pitch against Spurs and Wolves.”
Against Wolves, the goal arrived, and so did the sense of design. His positioning between the lines was sharper, his arrival in the box better timed, and his ball security under pressure cleaner. Slot has encouraged more verticality from his No.10 zone, and Wirtz is beginning to answer that brief.
Slot’s Reset, Attack Rebalanced
The unbeaten run has not reinvented Liverpool tactically, but it has reaffirmed their fundamentals: intensity without chaos, rotations without over complication, control without sterilising the final third. Lynch framed the wider attacking picture in human terms:
“Him and Ekitike were both bought to be a big part of the attack, so to see that is finally clicking it’s really positive.”
Liverpool’s attack is being rebalanced around those two. Ekitike’s movement clears lanes, Wirtz is now exploiting them. The interdependence is starting to feel deliberate rather than hopeful.
Value, Pressure and Delivering Returns
“At the end of the day, there’s all this talk about the tactics but we’re talking about £200m worth of players there and we need them to perform,” said Lynch.
Football arguments are often about systems until they are about players. Big fees do not guarantee impact, but they demand it. Wirtz’s recent output is finally tilting the expected goals and assist curve in the right direction. The confidence with which he is receiving and releasing is altering the tempo of Liverpool’s attacks.
“He’s really becoming the heartbeat of the team, which is what he was signed to be,” continued Lynch.
Heartbeats in football are not merely high touch players, they are players whose touches change the temperature of a match. Wirtz is beginning to warm Liverpool rather than simply measure them.
“He’s getting into positions to get more goals and assists now and he is really starting to deliver.”
“At the end of the day, there’s all this talk about the tactics but we’re talking about £200m worth of players there and we need them to perform.”
“Both of them are really showing what they’re all about and that is massive for Liverpool.”
Liverpool still have ground to make up in the title defence, but their autumn fog is clearing. Wirtz’s goal on Saturday was one of those moments that feel earned, instructive, and potentially catalytic.
