Florian Wirtz | Leverkusen player

Zhener, it's a wrong assumption that Wirtz regarding his stamina, physique isn't that much on that powerful tireless German prototype (specially from the 80's and 90's)?
That would not prevent at all his progression in my view, yet watching him against Aleti and some of his last games, he looked more like an argie alike sillfull fella that needs to dosify a bit, than a constant relentless tireless yet very talented Kraut.
 
Cannot agree with that. Raum comes sliding and jumping in like a madman, Wirtz basically has to evade and lands on him. I think the ref got it right.

Don't think the goal should have counted but it's obviously not a red card
 
Zhener, it's a wrong assumption that Wirtz regarding his stamina, physique isn't that much on that powerful tireless German prototype (specially from the 80's and 90's)?
That would not prevent at all his progression in my view, yet watching him against Aleti and some of his last games, he looked more like an argie alike sillfull fella that needs to dosify a bit, than a constant relentless tireless yet very talented Kraut.
Wirtz is regularly among the players with the most distance covered. He's a relentless workhorse.
 
Zhener, it's a wrong assumption that Wirtz regarding his stamina, physique isn't that much on that powerful tireless German prototype (specially from the 80's and 90's)?
That would not prevent at all his progression in my view, yet watching him against Aleti and some of his last games, he looked more like an argie alike sillfull fella that needs to dosify a bit, than a constant relentless tireless yet very talented Kraut.

He's unique in the sense that he combines this silkiness and technique with a relentless defensive work rate but I thought he should maybe tune that down a bit since a couple of times already since I can't imagine he can keep that up over his whole career.


Aaand almost another great assist
 
Wirtz is regularly among the players with the most distance covered. He's a relentless workhorse.

Yes he is very present, yet I don't feel he looks that powerful with that typical extra gear even some of the most skillfull German players of the past had. I think he is smart to cover a lot of ground and try to be everywhere, but I'm not having the feeling that he doesn't need to dosify such display in a clever way like some Krauts in the past didn't even need to. I might be wrong or I just grabbed him a bit more tired in some of his recent games.
 
By far the best player in the league right now and one of the very best in Europe. Mindblowing performance today, yet again.
 
I wonder if fancies playing in the conference with us next year…
 
I wonder if fancies playing in the conference with us next year…
Unfortunately next season he will be either at Leverkusen or Real.

(Or Bayern sells two wingers to Saudi and Wirtz goes on strike to join his buddy Musiala at Bayern. :angel: )
 
Thanks! always welcome any sort of cool vid

Happy to hear that! I'm watching lots of these videos and share the ones I think are worth it. Don't think I'll see another player like this in my team again so I enjoy it while it lasts ;)
 
Happy to hear that! I'm watching lots of these videos and share the ones I think are worth it. Don't think I'll see another player like this in my team again so I enjoy it while it lasts ;)
Where do you think he'll end bud? Madrid seems to have too many attacking players, so possibly City or Bayern? God forbid, please not Liverpool. Think he'll be as good a KdB replacement City could hope for.
 
Kane
Muisala-Wirtz-Olise
Looks so scary.

We have nothing in terms of that much quality.

I can even imagine them replacing Kane quite soon aswell.
 
Where do you think he'll end bud? Madrid seems to have too many attacking players, so possibly City or Bayern? God forbid, please not Liverpool. Think he'll be as good a KdB replacement City could hope for.
If I had to guess: one more year at Leverkusen and then in the summer of 2026 off to Madrid. Madrid 75%, City 15%, Bayern 10%.
 
Where do you think he'll end bud? Madrid seems to have too many attacking players, so possibly City or Bayern? God forbid, please not Liverpool. Think he'll be as good a KdB replacement City could hope for.

I think he'll end up in Madrid. They need a world class ten who's capable of playing Mbappe through and there's noone better at that than Wirtz, IMO. Madrid has been interested for quite a while but recently the news surfaced that he's too expensive for them this season. Coincidently, shortly after the news surfaced that Wirtz wants to stay for another season and now we are negotiating a buyout clause with him. There are also a few insider reports in Leverkusen boards that I think are quite reliable who claim that he's not planning to move to Bayern. I'm also one of the few who don't think he'd fit in there as well because Wirtz and Musiala are essentially playing the same position and Wirtz suffered from being shifted to the right for Germany when both were in the starting lineup. I don't think it would be wise for him to move there unless they sell Musiala.

But I'm obviously not neutral since I really, really don't want him to join Bayern, so take that with a grain of salt ;)


Watch the video again but focus on the GKs - it looks comical for some reason. Perhaps I'm just being harsh on them but the keeping looks terrible at times in this video. Not to take anything away from Wirtz, clearly a top class talent. The keeping just caught my eye and then I couldn't focus on anything else once I noticed it.

Yeah, a few blunders in this video. Probably a different topic but the quality of the goalkeeping in the Bundesliga has nosedived if you ask me. Germany was known to produce many great goalkeepers but it has dried up completely. There is nobody on the horizon who could take over from Ter Stegen.

But in regards to the video, Wirtz is somebody who finishes with his head up, observes the goalkeeper for a long time before choosing a corner and tries to catch them on the wrong foot, so that might play a role as well. Plus some of the blunders were in the UCL as well.
 
I'm also one of the few who don't think he'd fit in there as well because Wirtz and Musiala are essentially playing the same position and Wirtz suffered from being shifted to the right for Germany when both were in the starting lineup.
Regardless of if he moves to Bayern (I'd only give that a slim chance as well) Germany has to figure out some kind of setup to let them both shine. Some sort of 4-1-4-1 or 3-2-4-1 or whatever.
 
If I had to guess: one more year at Leverkusen and then in the summer of 2026 off to Madrid. Madrid 75%, City 15%, Bayern 10%.

I think he'll end up in Madrid. They need a world class ten who's capable of playing Mbappe through and there's noone better at that than Wirtz, IMO. Madrid has been interested for quite a while but recently the news surfaced that he's too expensive for them this season. Coincidently, shortly after the news surfaced that Wirtz wants to stay for another season and now we are negotiating a buyout clause with him. There are also a few insider reports in Leverkusen boards that I think are quite reliable who claim that he's not planning to move to Bayern. I'm also one of the few who don't think he'd fit in there as well because Wirtz and Musiala are essentially playing the same position and Wirtz suffered from being shifted to the right for Germany when both were in the starting lineup. I don't think it would be wise for him to move there unless they sell Musiala.

But I'm obviously not neutral since I really, really don't want him to join Bayern, so take that with a grain of salt ;)




Yeah, a few blunders in this video. Probably a different topic but the quality of the goalkeeping in the Bundesliga has nosedived if you ask me. Germany was known to produce many great goalkeepers but it has dried up completely. There is nobody on the horizon who could take over from Ter Stegen.

But in regards to the video, Wirtz is somebody who finishes with his head up, observes the goalkeeper for a long time before choosing a corner and tries to catch them on the wrong foot, so that might play a role as well. Plus some of the blunders were in the UCL as well.
Thanks both. Will be interesting to see how this impacts Bellingham in the side - not sure he's defensively disciplined enough to play in a midfield 2, unless of course they do a City type formation switch having essentially 2 hybrid 8/10's in front of a lone DM. From the little I know, Alonso has a good chance of replacing Ancelotti and his formation preference is similar to Amorim, isn't it?

I guess loads of options for Madrid with the quality at their disposal. This is all without even mentioning their Brazillians and the other young attackers on the bench.
 
Yeah, a few blunders in this video. Probably a different topic but the quality of the goalkeeping in the Bundesliga has nosedived if you ask me. Germany was known to produce many great goalkeepers but it has dried up completely. There is nobody on the horizon who could take over from Ter Stegen.

But in regards to the video, Wirtz is somebody who finishes with his head up, observes the goalkeeper for a long time before choosing a corner and tries to catch them on the wrong foot, so that might play a role as well. Plus some of the blunders were in the UCL as well.
Yeah Germany used to produce a lot of good GKs. It was strange as in the video a lot of the GKs were so static and rooted to the spot, being beaten by simple passes into the goal at times. Like you said, probably a discussion for another time, but you'd expect the keeper to narrow the angles at least in a number of those situations.

He'd probably score most of them anyway as he seems to have great composure and would alter his finish, but it just caught my eye is all.
 
Regardless of if he moves to Bayern (I'd only give that a slim chance as well) Germany has to figure out some kind of setup to let them both shine. Some sort of 4-1-4-1 or 3-2-4-1 or whatever.

Yes, this will be an interesting thing to observe. I think it is clear that both are utilized best when playing on the left so we'd need some kind of asynchronous formation which would probably require a fast and vertical player on the right who can attack the space that will open up there, similarly to Frimpong for us. Try to build up the play over the left side of the pitch with the goal of getting either Musiala or Wirtz into dribbling positions in the left half spaces. Since both are so good at passing and link up play, they can rotate in and out there which could be very difficult to defend. Musiala's heatmaps are also a bit more focused on the centre than Wirtz who likes to drift wide. Add to that Musiala's qualities at heading and his not insignificant size and maybe he could play a false 9 or shadow striker role. He has a tendency to overlook other players as well when in dribbling mode so a finishing oriented role could work for him as well.

One way or another, good times ahead for Germany me thinks :)
 
Watch the video again but focus on the GKs - it looks comical for some reason. Perhaps I'm just being harsh on them but the keeping looks terrible at times in this video. Not to take anything away from Wirtz, clearly a top class talent. The keeping just caught my eye and then I couldn't focus on anything else once I noticed it.
I thought the same, looks comical
 
Yeah Germany used to produce a lot of good GKs. It was strange as in the video a lot of the GKs were so static and rooted to the spot, being beaten by simple passes into the goal at times. Like you said, probably a discussion for another time, but you'd expect the keeper to narrow the angles at least in a number of those situations.

He'd probably score most of them anyway as he seems to have great composure and would alter his finish, but it just caught my eye is all.

Side note, just a random thougth and rant:

Yet isn't a sign of the times too?...we tend to focus if a player dribbles a defender, that defender can't allow that (while in the meantime the ability of the attacker it's some how demerit), if a player misses a chance, he is at fault for loosing the game, etc etc...I think we live on an era where everything its scrutinize to the max, where agendas are created from players mistakes, rumours, and a large etc in order to "create" news.
Club interests (and THEIR players), even political interests are constantly battling to a level we never seen before.
So even us simple fans tend too become more unforgiven, to act like freaking scouts. Ex footballers talk in TV in a way they would despise being treated and so on.
Yes there are some blunders in the vid, but we are also in many ways living in a world that "needs" to be nitpicking even we it's not that necessary or never was at that level before. We comnstantly need to deterimine who is the best the whole time, what is the best league, where comparisons are drawn with the past normally ending in two extremes "everything was way better, payers didn't comitt a mistake" , too "players from the past were all bricklayers that can't hack it nowadays at all", most of times with nothing in between.
Dunno I have that feeling since time.

PD side note from the side note: a pass to the net would always be the best way to finish, the better at that always did it that way. From Múller, to Romario, to Messi; players many times does not get that you have to make a pass to the net most of times, the thing it's too have the talent to not be nervous to do it and take/manage the time to do it.
 
I think he'll end up in Madrid. They need a world class ten who's capable of playing Mbappe through and there's noone better at that than Wirtz, IMO. Madrid has been interested for quite a while but recently the news surfaced that he's too expensive for them this season. Coincidently, shortly after the news surfaced that Wirtz wants to stay for another season and now we are negotiating a buyout clause with him. There are also a few insider reports in Leverkusen boards that I think are quite reliable who claim that he's not planning to move to Bayern. I'm also one of the few who don't think he'd fit in there as well because Wirtz and Musiala are essentially playing the same position and Wirtz suffered from being shifted to the right for Germany when both were in the starting lineup. I don't think it would be wise for him to move there unless they sell Musiala.

But I'm obviously not neutral since I really, really don't want him to join Bayern, so take that with a grain of salt ;)




Yeah, a few blunders in this video. Probably a different topic but the quality of the goalkeeping in the Bundesliga has nosedived if you ask me. Germany was known to produce many great goalkeepers but it has dried up completely. There is nobody on the horizon who could take over from Ter Stegen.

But in regards to the video, Wirtz is somebody who finishes with his head up, observes the goalkeeper for a long time before choosing a corner and tries to catch them on the wrong foot, so that might play a role as well. Plus some of the blunders were in the UCL as well.
He will clash with Bellingham at Madrid. He'll end up at City.
 
Kicker now reporting that he extended his contract in Leverkusen: https://www.kicker.de/der-deal-steht-wirtz-hat-bei-bayer-verlaengert-1076031/artikel

Bit surprising, but probably means that he will stay another year in Leverkusen and don't move in the summer.
Wonder what happened with that report.. stating matter of factly that he extended and then almost two months later it's still not materialized.
I struggle to understand how kicker can have one supposed USP, which is reliable, if a bit sluggish and old-fashioned, football reporting, and be so offensively bad at it.
 
What a great assist. Couldn't find a vid, too recent
 
Nonetheless today is the worst I've seen him play all season

I won't say that he has been that bad, he has been chaotic, trying too much, a bit disoriented all over the place...that assist was a great play where he calmed down.
 
Goal a la Xabi/Bayer in the last moments...
 
I won't say that he has been that bad, he has been chaotic, trying too much, a bit disoriented all over the
Exactly. Which makes this the worst I've seen from him all season.

It's still very good, but not as great as usual.
 
That touch was probably the best recreation of the Bundesliga logo yet
 
Yeah Germany used to produce a lot of good GKs. It was strange as in the video a lot of the GKs were so static and rooted to the spot, being beaten by simple passes into the goal at times. Like you said, probably a discussion for another time, but you'd expect the keeper to narrow the angles at least in a number of those situations.
Didn't you get the memo? Goalkeepers are expected to have the first touch of Berbatov, dribble like Musiala and pass it like Scholes. That whole business of coming off your line to claim crosses, narrow angles and shot-stopping in general is massively overrated. Keepers that could do that used to be a dime a dozen, tekkers though...