Florian Wirtz's Pressing is Elite. It Will Need to Improve at Liverpool
Florian Wirtz was in the top three per cent of pressers in the Bundesliga and Champions League this season. Liverpool have players who break the scales
Liverpool have made a bid of up to €130m (including add-ons) for Florian Wirtz. The previous edition of this newsletter focussed on his remarkable on-ball statistics. His defensive work is arguably even better.
The 22-year-old was part of a Leverkusen side which averaged 8.2 high turnovers per match in 2024/25, meaning that is how many open play possession sequences they started within 40m of the opposition goal. As Arne Slot’s side recorded 8.1 a game, Wirtz should be able to keep pace.
He could even become the Reds’ key man for recovering possession in the final third. With 1.3 regains per 90 minutes in that zone, Wirtz was comfortably above Liverpool’s leading players; Luis Díaz and Curtis Jones averaged 0.8 each. Indeed, nobody with as much playing time in the Bundesliga or Premier League topped the German international’s recovery rate in opposition defensive thirds.
A recent issue of The Transfer Flow further highlighted his off-ball prowess. “The rich clubs vying for his services will love how consistent he is across competitions, with his numbers not dropping off at all between Bundesliga and UEFA Champions League play,” wrote Kim McCauley, before sharing a radar to prove the point.
Eyes naturally wander to the edges of the chart that are touched by coloured marks. There are two for which Wirtz is in at least the 97th percentile of his peers in the two most important competitions: Dribble & Carry OBV [On-ball value] and PAdj [possession adjusted] Pressures.
His Bundesliga figure of 27.36 for the latter metric was surpassed by a top percentile 32.56 per 90 in the Champions League. Liverpool saw evidence of this when Wirtz recorded the most pressures by any player in Leverkusen’s 4-0 defeat at Anfield.
His total of 29 that night equates to 30.8 once we factor in that the visitors edged the possession with 52.9 per cent. Wirtz will have pressed with even greater intensity elsewhere to reach his 32.6 average. Based on several key Liverpool players’ figures for 2024/25, he will have to lift his level even higher if he joins the club.
That point deserves reiterating: Wirtz is in the top one per cent of attacking midfielders and wingers for pressing, yet his potential new teammates at Anfield have been even better.
Using Fantasy Football Scout as a source for Hudl Statsbomb data, we can calculate possession-adjusted pressure figures for the Premier League. Here are the top 15 men with at least 1,250 minutes played.
Liverpool have four representatives, ahead of Newcastle (three), Brighton and Manchester United (both two). The first three of those clubs are the leading teams for possession-adjusted pressures this season too. An increased success rate means the Reds have made marginally more regains than in Jürgen Klopp’s final campaign despite making fewer pressures overall.
Is this down to something Slot has implemented? Or has the structure improved with the midfield rebuilt in the summer of 2023 gaining more experience of playing together? Perhaps both; a slightly less intense press should be more productive as it would make it easier for a more established unit to move as one.
The figures in the above chart are calculated using the season-wide possession average for each player’s club. As we’re trying to establish the work rate Wirtz would need to deliver in this red shirt rather than his current one, let’s refine the data more accurately for Liverpool’s squad.
To do this, we will look at the average possession for the matches in which they played. The figure for anyone with a decent sample understandably remains close to the overall average of 57.9 per cent.
It remains interesting to see how the players who featured in the Premier League’s top possession-adjusted pressures chart vary. Diogo Jota and Dominik Szoboszlai had the Reds’ top possession figures of 59.2 and 58.0 respectively.
While this suggests they featured in easier games (or more at home) on average, they also had fewer chances to regain the ball. Alexis Mac Allister (57.5) and Díaz (57.3) benefited from more opportunities to recover possession when amassing their sizeable pressure totals.
Here are the updated possession-adjusted pressing figures for Slot’s most used players. Remember, Wirtz averaged 27.4 in the league, 32.6 in Europe.
It isn’t just that Liverpool have several players at or above the level of the player they are looking to sign, it’s where they fit within the team.
If we assume Slot is going to stick with a 4-2-3-1 formation next term, Wirtz would probably be coming to play as the 10. On respective league records, 10 would also be the additional pressures he’d need to find to match Szoboszlai.
Perhaps the German would play as the central forward in a similar manner to how Díaz fulfilled the role this season. He might match the Colombian’s defensive work rate, which registered a slightly higher score of 30.2 when starting in the middle. That’s still adrift of what Jota and Darwin Núñez delivered there though.
In all likelihood, Slot will shuffle his deck depending on the opponent faced. Wherever he deploys Wirtz (assuming he signs), it appears the elite playmaker will need to up his already elite pressing game to meet the Liverpool head coach’s off-ball demands.
Don’t let yourself go this summer, Florian. There’s work to be done.
I knew Szoboszlai was a ferocious presser, but WOW.
Thanks for compiling this Andrew. It does seem like Florian will have his work cut out for him regardless of whether he plays CF (false 9) or the 10. Diogo & Darwin's #s were a bit surprising compared to the eye test. They are active pressers but it seems less effective in causing a turnover.
Is there a success metric for pressures in the attacking third, i.e. pressures that resulted in a turnover in possession?