Bundesliga tax? Man City and Liverpool target Wirtz is ready for the Premier League
Neel Shelat
- Updated: 6 Oct 2023 21:10 BST
- 7 min read
Bayer Leverkusen are one of the most exciting teams in Europe right now.
Led by Xabi Alonso, they look set to compete at the very top of the Bundesliga this season, thanks in no small part to the contributions of some of their attacking stars. Chief among them is young Florian Wirtz, the 20-year-old creative midfielder who has caught the attention of the likes of Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Manchester City.
Wirtz is not a player these clubs could ever have missed as he set the record for being the youngest player to appear in a Bundesliga match back in 2020. He made his debut for Bayer Leverkusen just days after turning 17 and only a few months after controversially joining the club’s youth academy from rivals FC Köln, having spent most of his childhood training with the Billygoats.
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Rise to the top
Since then, Wirtz has only gone from strength to strength. He quickly established himself as a first-team regular in the 2020/21 season, after which his development has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, he suffered a major setback towards the end of the 2021/22 season when he tore his ACL, leading him to miss a good chunk of the subsequent season too.
Of course, such a severe injury to a young player is always worrisome, but Wirtz was well taken care of and looked like he had not missed a second of action when he returned. If anything, the young German international has only seemed to get better this season, so it is no surprise to learn that many of the world’s best clubs are keeping a close eye on him.
Here is a simple illustration of Wirtz’s constant improvement: the fact that his chances creator per 90 figure has been rising season upon season since he made his debut.
What is particularly handy about Wirtz is that his profile is one that is quite in demand in the current market, as well as seemingly being immune to the so-called ‘Bundesliga tax’. Let us explore why...
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Creative maestro
If there is one thing you can be sure of when Florian Wirtz is on the pitch, it is that he will create chances for his teammates. Last season, he basically averaged an assist every two games and racked up over 5 SCAs (Shot-Creating Actions) per 90.
Wirtz’s creativity shows up in all sorts of data metrics. Soccerment’s advanced stats from this season highlight his multidimensional creativity through an incredibly high volume of passes into the final third, a high Expected Assists (xA) tally from open play, dribbling quality, through balls and all sorts of dangerous passes really through his high xT (Expected Threat) figures.
All in all, he has the potential to cause a great deal of problems for his opponents when he has the ball, as his xOVA (Expected Offensive Value Added) suggests.
Those are all some very complicated numbers, so let us break them down into what we can see on the pitch.
First, let us take a look at where Wirtz likes to operate. His touchmap shows that he drifts around quite a bit, but his starting position is in a pretty advanced role towards the left in Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-2-4-1 structure in possession.
Watching him play, his spatial awareness and off-ball intelligence really stand out as he always seems to move into the right positions between opposition lines. He is excellent technically too, receiving the ball securely and getting on the half-turn to play forward. As a result, the young German international is an excellent ball progressor in all three ways – receiving, carrying and passing.
His technical brilliance extends to his dribbling, as he often seems to glide forward with the ball glued to his feet. The Bayer Leverkusen attacker regularly wriggles through tight spaces and goes on long progressive runs with the ball.
But that is not to say he is anything like a ball hog. Wirtz is always aware of where his teammates are and knows when to release passes to someone in a better position, which is why he also racks up progressive passes.
Of course, the standout aspect of Wirtz’s play is his creativity, so he obviously creates a lot of chances. This season, he has averaged close to 4 key passes per 90 and as this event map shows, he creates all sorts of chances ranging from through balls to cutbacks, but everything originates in and around the box.
Unlike many such creative talents, Wirtz is also a very hard worker defensively so there are few faults in his game. One aspect he might want to work on, though, is his shooting.
The 20-year-old attacker is not a bad finisher in any way, so what he lacks is simply shot volume. Last season, for instance, he only attempted 7 shots in over 1,000 minutes of league action to return with just a solitary goal. He did score 7 goals in the league season before that, so there definitely is something to build on.
Why Wirtz will not suffer from the Bundesliga tax
At this point, any discussion about an exciting young Bundesliga attacker has to address the issue of the Bundesliga tax. The German top flight is rather extreme in some senses as almost all teams seem to employ an intense high press with a high defensive line, with the concept of a compact low block seemingly alien to most of them.
So, many strikers in particular tend to look very good in the league due to the abundant spaces available behind defences, but then tend to struggle in a different league where they might face more low blocks. Wirtz, however, does not rely on this aspect of the game as his creativity peaks in and around the box, where situations will be quite similar across leagues.
In addition to that, Wirtz is not necessarily a pure number 10, which is a dying role in the modern game. While you would not want him defending deep in your own half, he can do a great job as an advanced number 8 on either side in possession (but clearly prefers the left) and can be suitably used in a couple of ways out of possession as long as the system is tailored accordingly.
So, in an era where the 2-3-2-3 and 3-2-2-3 are the most popular structures in possession among top teams, Wirtz definitely has a spot. As aforementioned, he is being loosely linked to many of the world’s best clubs, and most of them make sense for him.
All of Barcelona, Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Manchester City and Liverpool have a left-sided attacking role in their current systems that Wirtz would be perfectly suited to, so he must carefully assess his options, see where he has the clearest path to becoming a regular starter and take the next step for his career when he feels the time is right.
