Arne Slot responds to Arsene Wenger claim Florian Wirtz has 'destroyed' Liverpool midfield

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot talks £116m summer signing Florian Wirtz, whose arrival from Bayer Leverkusen has been subject of an accusation from former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger

Having wrenched the title from Manchester City's grasp last season, Liverpool will now hope their latest visit to the Etihad can prove the worth of victory over their Premier League rivals in the transfer market this summer. Both clubs were chasing the signature of Florian Wirtz until Reds boss Arne Slot persuaded the 22-year-old attacking midfielder to make a £116million move from Bayer Leverkusen to Anfield.

The rewards, though, have been slow to materialise with Wirtz taking time to adapt to a much-changed team, prompting former Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger to this week claim the Germany international's arrival had "destroyed" Liverpool's title-winning midfield.

But despite starting the former Leverkusen hero on the left wing in Tuesday's impressive Champions League win over Real Madrid, Slot is in no doubt the player will eventually succeed in his preferred midfield role.

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"Everyone has a right to his own opinion and many of them have," said the Reds boss of Wenger's comments. "If I need open-heart surgery, I am not going to tell the surgeon what he needs to do, but about football everyone is telling you what the best thing is to do.

"Florian now played off the left. But I can tell you if it is not this season it is the other season or if it is not now it is tomorrow, he will have great performances as a midfielder for Liverpool as well.

"We have five or six very good midfielders who can all play together but they need to play more together to get the best out of every single player. Florian needs time to adapt to his team-mates, team-mates need time to adapt to him."

Wirtz may have to be content with a place on the left once more on Sunday with Slot having reverted to the tried-and-trusted midfield triumvirate of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai for the recent wins over Aston Villa and Real.

While there have been questions over Wirtz's ability to cope with the physicality of the Premier League, the success of David Silva and more recently Bernardo Silva at City underlines there is scope for diminutive players to dominate games.

“He definitely has the talent for it, but it’s not only about one player," said Slot. "It’s also about the team you are playing in. Do they find you when you are in the pocket in the right timing, where you can then show your quality?

“There has been a lot of focus on him individually and I’m more focused on team performance.

“What I can say about Florian is that since Xabi Alonso came in (at Leverkusen) he was mainly used in a 3-4-3 system as an inverted winger where before that he mainly played as a 10. In the national team he plays as an inverted winger as well.

“For me the only challenge I have is making sure he gets in those positions as an inverted winger or as a 10, in those positions in and around the 18-yard box where his team-mates need to find him in the right timing, because then he will always produce special things.

“He does this for the national team, he did it for Leverkusen and he’s already done that for us as well."

Arsenal's strong start to the Premier League campaign has left both City and Liverpool trailing in their wake, although Slot has sidestepped suggestions Sunday is a must-win for his team given defeat could leave them 10 points behind the Gunners and four adrift of Pep Guardiola's side.

"I said last season the best way to judge the league table is after 19 games," said Slot. "If you want to judge it at some point the fairest way is halfway through the season.

"Some teams played already Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, Newcastle away, all these difficult ones. And some, like we had last season, we hardly played one of the top four or five in the first nine games of the season.

"So that is why after 19 games let’s see where every team is then and what is realistic for the second half of the season."

Slot, who has made no secret of being influenced by Guardiola as a manager, masterminded Liverpool to the double over City last season including a 2-0 win at the Etihad in February in which he outfoxed the Spaniard with a 4-2-2-2 formation.

"I think he had an influence on many people, first of all on the people who are now at big clubs," said Slot. "Mikel Arteta, Enzo Maresca, Vincent Kompany, you can see a lot of comparisons between how Pep has always played the game and how these managers play the game.

"He has been influential indirectly to people who do not know him or didn’t work with him, but if you are for so many years that your teams are a joy to watch it would be a surprise if you had no influence on other people."

Slot added: "Playing against him was already nice. The first time we played against each other was at Anfield (last December) and they had 250 injuries - that is an exaggeration - but he missed a lot, a lot of players back then.

"When you have to play in this ridiculous fixture list we are having of playing every three days, if you have seven or eight players out that is very challenging, even for him.

"And last season when we beat them everyone was very positive, but they had 70% of the ball and we were only defending which is a good win but I think if you play the same game 10 times I don’t think we are able to win it 10 times in that manner. Nice to have won the games but I can look realistically how we won it."

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