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Liverpool took a big step to earning a Champions League place next season with a big – if slightly inflated – 5-2 win over West Ham at Anfield. While there were certainly tricky moments and some that rightly left some fans less than convinced, on the whole you wouldn’t be alone in feeling it was a generally positive outing for the Reds. I mean, owner’s of three straight victories in the league and likely the on-form team at the moment, it’s tough to complain.
Especially going forward, Liverpool looked more than capable of making West Ham pay for any lapses in concentration. And the team really looked up for it, stringing together a few moves that looked like the lads had finally found their missing groove. Doing so with so many attacking players still on the injured list adds just that little extra on top of the achievement.
Perhaps the most vital cog currently on the trainer’s table is Florian Wirtz, with the German attacking prodigy having grown into a pivotal piece of Liverpool’s attack over the past couple of months. With the midfielder being a game-time scratch last week, there was some hope that the injury sustained would not require too many missed matches.
But with Wirtz not making the matchday squad today, there was a ripple of concern. Unfortunately, Arne Slot’s post-match comments only served to confirm that the injury isn’t exactly a straight-forward, super short-term issue:
“I think [Tuesday against Wolves] will be too early, but I said last week I didn’t expect him not to be available for today, so sometimes with an injury things can develop in a positive way or in a negative way. Now we are thinking it doesn’t have to take too long, but Tuesday will probably be too early. The week after will be tight as things stand now, but as I said, I thought that he would be available for today as well, which didn’t happen unfortunately.”
So, if I’m reading Slot’s words right, we may not even see Flo back in the squad until, perhaps, the second Champions League match against Galatasaray. Here’s hoping that whatever issue is keeping Wirtz on the sidelines clears up soon. It’s clear that Liverpool’s long-term future is pinned to the attacking genius and given that he’d just begin to come good on the expectations since his signing, it would be good to seem return sooner rather than later.