Steve McManaman has said that Florian Wirtz’s second assist against Eintracht Frankfurt shouldn’t count as a goal contribution.
The attacking midfielder has had a tough time of it since joining Liverpool in the summer, with most of the chances he’s created not ending up in the back of the net.
However, in Liverpool’s 5-1 win against Frankfurt on Wednesday, he proved the doubters wrong and got two assists for the Anfield outfit.
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Although Wirtz finally broke his rut, Steve McManaman has suggested that his second assist shouldn’t have counted, as he hardly did anything to contribute to the goal.
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“I mean, Florian Wirtz got an assist, didn’t he, tonight? I mean, before anybody starts saying that second one. That second one is not an assist,” he said on TNT Sports.
“It was a simple pass to Szoboszlai that wasn’t an assist.”
Florian Wirtz doesn’t deserve to have his Liverpool performance frowned upon by Steve McManaman
Although neither of Wirtz’s assists are going to go down in the history books, the fact that he managed to get them shouldn’t be frowned upon.
Since the start of the 2025-26 campaign, it’s been clear that the 22-year-old has bags of talent that were just waiting to get out.
He’s among Liverpool’s top chance creators across all competitions, and even though the two assists he did get weren’t anything amazing, there were another couple of times in the game when he could’ve racked up even more.
One example of this is when the ball came in from a corner, Wirtz headed it down towards Federico Chiesa, who tried to score an overhead kick, but unfortunately, the Italian sent the ball just wide.
It’s moments like this that would’ve been eye-catching, but since Liverpool’s first-team squad haven’t been able to finish their dinner at times this season, it hardly feels fair for McManaman to try and knock Wirtz’s contributions down a peg or two.
Florian Wirtz was arguably Liverpool’s most important player against Eintracht Frankfurt
Although rival fans and seemingly McManaman may not have been all that impressed with Wirtz’s performance on Wednesday, the stats prove otherwise.
As per Sofascore, in the 90 minutes that the German was on the pitch, he covered almost every blade of grass despite starting as the Reds’ right-winger.
He was bombing up and down the right-hand side of the pitch while also filling in the gap left behind Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike when they pushed forward.
This free-roam role gave the 22-year-old the creative license to do as he pleased and allowed Wirtz to produce his best-ever Liverpool performance.
As mentioned, Wirtz got himself two assists, resulting in two big chances being created by the German, with four key passes also being made.
He maintained a pass accuracy of 89 per cent throughout the tie, with 87 per cent of those he attempted in the opposition’s half also being accurate.
Photo by KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP via Getty Images
Additionally, Wirtz completed one dribble in the game while also having 78 touches of the ball.
Defensively, he was also fairly solid, with the attacker recovering the ball on seven separate occasions and only being dribbled past twice.
