Florian Wirtz Embraces New Project Under Andoni Iraola at Liverpool

Florian Wirtz is only two weeks into pre-season under Andoni Iraola, but his verdict is already clear: this is a project he wants to be at the heart of.

The Liverpool playmaker, speaking after a 3-2 defeat to AS Monaco, cut a calm but quietly excited figure as he assessed life under the club’s new head coach, who arrived earlier in the summer to replace Arne Slot.

“You could see what he can do with the team,” Wirtz said, pointing to Iraola’s last three years at Bournemouth as a reference point rather than a promise.

Those seasons on the south coast, defined by intensity and organisation, have clearly made an impression in the Liverpool dressing room before a competitive ball has even been kicked.

For Wirtz, the early sessions have been enough to whet the appetite.

“It’s only two weeks now that I’m training, so I can just say that I’m enjoying it. I like the idea of football he has, so I’m really looking forward to it.”

That “idea of football” has already started to surface in flashes. Liverpool were sharp and aggressive in the opening stages against Monaco, Wirtz noting that “only the first 30 minutes were good from us” before the performance faded. It was a reminder that stylistic change does not arrive overnight, even for a squad stacked with technical quality.

Wirtz’s own adaptation curve offers a useful parallel. The 23-year-old, who produced 15 goal contributions in all competitions in his first season in England, knows what it means to adjust to a new tempo and a new tactical language.

“I’ve played one year now in England,” he said. “I’ve said this often enough that it’s a different style of football in England than in Germany. You just get used to the games and the opponents.”

Now comes another layer of adaptation: the Iraola way. High energy. Clear patterns. Demanding off the ball, ambitious on it. Wirtz didn’t delve into detail on the system, but he didn’t need to. His emphasis was on repetition, on work, on the grind that turns ideas into habits.

“I’ve not spoken about the style so much. I think he has his ideas of playing football. We just have to work on that even more now. I think we still have a lot to improve in training and also in the next match.”

That is where Liverpool stand in mid-summer: somewhere between intrigue and implementation. The Monaco defeat stung, but only in the way pre-season defeats do for serious players — as a marker, not a verdict.

For Iraola, Wirtz is a key asset: a creative midfielder already hardened by a year of English football, yet still young enough to be moulded. For Wirtz, Iraola is the next coach asking him to push his game into new territory.

The ideas are on the training pitch. The enthusiasm is there. The question now is simple: how quickly can Liverpool turn those first good 30 minutes into 90?