Slot offers hopeful Wirtz update after warm-up withdrawal vs Forest

Arne Slot provided an immediate update on Florian Wirtz after the Germany international was ruled out of our 1-0 Premier League win over Nottingham Forest.

Our No.7 has been one of our main creative outlets this season and was originally named in the starting XI at the City Ground, before reporting a back issue during the warm-up.

That late blow forced a reshuffle, with Curtis Jones stepping in and Liverpool having to adjust roles during the first half, including Dominik Szoboszlai initially filling in at right-back before positions were tweaked again.

Slot, speaking at his post-match press conference at the City Ground via Liverpoolfc.com, sounded optimistic about the severity of the problem.

“We don’t think it is very serious, but he felt his back too much during the warm-up to start.”

Slot also explained why Liverpool did not take any risks, even with the match carrying major weight in the top-four race.

“He wasn’t able to be 100% or even close to 100%. I think after being in this league for six, seven or eight months, he now understands no matter how good you are on the ball, you need to be 100% at this level.”

That line mattered because it showed Slot felt Wirtz was making a sensible call rather than trying to push through discomfort and potentially worsen the issue.

Our head coach then offered the clearest hint yet on when we might see the playmaker again.

“So, we decided not to play him. We hope and expect he will be able to be with us again next week but you never know how things work out.”

Why Wirtz was such a miss at the City Ground

The match itself became a reminder of how often Wirtz is the player who helps us unlock games when rhythm is missing.

Alexis Mac Allister bemoaned ‘positioning, pressing, intensity’ after the game, illustrating what a miss the German was from the side.

Forest threw 12 first-half shots at us and Liverpool produced very little in the opening period, before the second half became more balanced and ended in chaos as our No.10 grabbed a 97th-minute winner.

Slot himself said a draw would have been the more fair result, on what was ultimately a poor performance.

Even in an ugly performance, the absence of Wirtz’s control and invention was obvious, because our passing combinations did not stick and our threat between the lines was limited until late on.

Wirtz’s Liverpool numbers this season

Wirtz has been a steady contributor in the league, both in output and chance creation, which underlines why Slot is so keen to have him back quickly (via Sofascore).

Wirtz Premier League stats	Total
Appearances (starts)	25 (21)
Goals	4
Assists	2
Minutes	1,861
Expected goals (xG)	5.70
Expected assists (xA)	4.13
Key passes per game	1.8
Successful dribbles per game	1.4 (57%)

This is the type of update we wanted after seeing him pull out late, because Slot’s wording suggests the back issue is more about discomfort than a long lay-off.

The hope now is that Wirtz’s knock is short-term, because with Alexander Isak still working back to fitness, our margin for losing attacking options is not great.

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