Why Robbo went with the Flo as German hailed as ‘outstanding’

CODY GAKPO applied the finishing touch to banish any doubt Liverpool would emerge from Germany with much-needed victory.

- By IAN DOYLE Chief LFC Writer

But rather than engulf the goalscorer, many of his teammates instead made a beeline for the man who had laid on the opportunity.

Small wonder. For the first time in more than two months, the hard work of Florian Wirtz had been rewarded with an assist. Like buses, another came along shortly afterwards, although it was Dominik Szoboszlai who did most of the hard work by thumping home a simple pass from 20 yards to cap a 5-1 Champions League victory at Eintracht Frankfurt.

After such a barren run, though, Wirtz was just grateful of the contribution to quieten some of the criticism that has come his way since arriving for £116million from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer.

“I thought he was outstanding, excellent,” said Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson. “I thought he grew and grew into the game, especially the second half.

“Players around him helped him a lot - Curtis Jones was outstanding - and I thought the three midfielders helped us gain the momentum and keep the ball.

“Flo has been really good since he came here. People focus on numbers of goals and assists but at times it's unfair as he's created a hell of a lot of chances and on Wednesday some of the chances he created ended up as an assist. Hopefully he can take a lot from this performance.”

Robertson is not wrong to point out the number of openings fashioned by Wirtz that have been spurned by Liverpool.