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Florian Wirtz is best compared with Premier League attacking midfielders by what he does on the pitch, not by the position label alone. Liverpool and Premier League coverage describe a flexible creator who can receive between the lines, move into wide or advanced spaces, carry the ball and press. Bruno Fernandes is the clearest contrast as a high-volume chance creator; Morgan Rogers is more directly associated with powerful carries and forward runs.
The available figures below are tied to the stated 2025/26 or Leverkusen periods. They do not establish a like-for-like 2026/27 leaderboard.
What kind of attacking midfielder is Wirtz?
Liverpool’s official profile describes Wirtz as an attacking midfielder equally comfortable scoring and supplying goals. That is a useful starting point, but his role has shifted across teams, matches and tactical setups.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsIn 2024/25 at Bayer Leverkusen, he played mainly as an inverted left winger, while also drifting across the pitch in a No. 10-like role. Liverpool reported that 45 per cent of his open-play touches came on the left side of the opposition half that season. Leverkusen manager Xabi Alonso had also used him as a false nine in 2023/24, according to Liverpool’s June 2025 statistical feature.
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At Liverpool in 2025/26, the Premier League recorded him as a central No. 10, left winger, false nine and right-sided option. Its analysis noted that he often moved away from congested central areas into wider pockets, and that he pushed into more advanced spaces as the season progressed. In one earlier tactical example, he started centrally against West Ham after having previously been used as a false nine, left winger and deeper midfielder; his movement helped open passing lanes and create midfield overloads. See the Premier League’s Wirtz analysis and its December 2025 tactical analysis.
Wirtz has described the freedom behind that flexibility: “I think I am a player who needs freedom on the pitch and the manager gives it to me,” he told Liverpool in an interview published 5 August 2025 (Liverpool FC interview).
How Wirtz differs from Fernandes and Rogers
The Premier League’s March 2026 comparison presents three different attacking profiles rather than a strict ranking. Its 2025/26 figures show the gap in chance-creation volume between Fernandes and Rogers; the accompanying tactical descriptions help explain why raw totals do not tell the whole story.
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| Player | Best-supported distinction | Useful way to assess the role | 2025/26 chance creation in the cited comparison |
|---|---|---|---|
| Florian Wirtz | Flexible creator combining close-control carrying, passing between lines and movement across attacking areas. Historical Leverkusen evidence also records substantial pressing. | Receiving zones, carries, progression, final passes and pressing; keep club and sample period clear. | Not stated in the cited comparison. |
| Bruno Fernandes | High-volume creator, with an emphasis on producing chances and final balls. | Chance volume and quality, through-balls and set-piece contribution. | 92 chances created; 22 big chances created. |
| Morgan Rogers | Powerful, direct runner and dribbler in a fluid, second-striker-like position. | Forward carries, dribbles, shots and arrivals in the penalty area. | 35 chances created; 10 big chances created. |
The Fernandes and Rogers totals are from the Premier League’s 2025/26 comparison; they are not current 2026/27 totals. Wirtz’s different role and the absence of a Wirtz figure in that comparison mean those numbers cannot be used to rank all three on the same measure.
What Wirtz’s Leverkusen numbers show—and what they do not
Liverpool’s 20 June 2025 feature provides a useful historical picture of Wirtz’s creation, dribbling and work without the ball at Leverkusen. These are evidence of the skills he brought to Liverpool, not Premier League output.
- Chance creation: Liverpool reported 253 open-play chances created since his Bundesliga debut in May 2020, with only Thomas Müller creating more over that span. In the 2024/25 Bundesliga, Wirtz averaged 2.1 open-play chances per 90 minutes, the highest rate among Leverkusen players.
- Carrying and dribbling: In the 2024/25 Bundesliga, he attempted 313 take-ons, including 165 dribble attempts, and completed 82.
- Pressing: He made 679 pressures in nine 2024/25 Champions League appearances, a team-leading total for Leverkusen.
- Goal involvement: Liverpool counted 44 league goal involvements across the two preceding seasons, among Europe’s top five divisions; its feature said only one under-23 player had more.
Each figure describes the competition and period specified by Liverpool’s feature. None should be read as a current Premier League total or directly compared with Fernandes’s and Rogers’s 2025/26 figures above.
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How Wirtz’s early Liverpool adaptation changed across 2025/26
A Premier League split offers a limited snapshot of how Wirtz’s output shifted within his first Liverpool season. In his first 15 Premier League matches, he completed 14 dribbles; in the subsequent six-match sample, he completed 16. Reported expected assists (xA) rose from 1.69 to 1.75, while expected goals (xG) rose from 2.12 to 2.49. The Premier League published these figures in its 2025/26 form analysis.
The later six-game sample is small, so the split illustrates a change in those periods rather than proving a lasting trend or settling how successful his adaptation was. Match role, minutes and team setup also matter when interpreting such totals.
How to compare attacking midfielders fairly
A No. 10, a wide creator and a second striker can all appear among attacking midfielders while being asked to do different jobs. A useful comparison checks the role alongside the output:
- Chance creation: Separate open-play chances from set pieces, and consider both total volume and the quality of chances created.
- Carrying: Look at progressive carries and dribbles in context, rather than treating all take-ons as equivalent.
- Scoring threat: Check shots and penalty-box arrivals, especially for a player used as a runner or second striker.
- Movement: Note where the player receives the ball and whether he moves wide, drops deeper or attacks advanced spaces.
- Defensive work: Pressing and other off-ball duties can be part of an attacking midfielder’s assignment, as Wirtz’s Leverkusen Champions League pressure total illustrates.
- Sample and minutes: Keep the season, competition, team and sample period attached to each statistic. Use per-90 rates only when the source provides comparable minutes and definitions.
The Premier League’s cited analyses support tactical distinctions, but do not provide one complete, current 2026/27 dataset comparing Wirtz with every Premier League attacking midfielder on all these measures.
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